The Little Mermaid: Hellsing Style
by Shadows' Nightmare
Summary: New Sum: When the little mermaid Seras Victoria falls for the handsome Count Dracula, she trades her voice with Sea Witch Zorin Blitz to walk the land by his side. However, as the count leaves her in the care of his captain and arranges to marry another, she begins to question her choices in life and love. (Some SxA, with SxP and IxA.)
1. The Deep

Author's Notes: This is a fic I've honestly wanted to write since before I started writing Hellsing fics. When I first started my Peter Pan/Hellsing crossover "Alucard and Integra of Neverland," I wanted a Little Mermaid/Hellsing crossover to be a sister fic. I just couldn't decide whether to base it on the Hans Christian Andersen or Disney version. The H.C. Andersen version is dark and sad, so it fits the dark themes of Hellsing. However, the Disney version isn't depressing, and has many great scenes besides. I finally decided to go for a middle ground and base it on a bit of both.

Disclaimer: I do not own or make money off of Hellsing, H.C. Andersen's short story or Disney's movie. However, I will borrow text directly from translations of H.C. Andersen's short story for the first couple of chapters. I'm not trying to plagiarize, I just honestly like his setting more than the Disney version. Moreover, I strongly encourage you to read H.C. Andersen's "The Little Mermaid" to see how much is mine and how much is his for yourself.

* * *

Far out in the ocean, where the water is blue as the loveliest cornflower and clear as the purest glass, the sea folk live. From the deepest spot in the ocean rises the palace of the Sea King. Its walls are made of coral and its high pointed windows of the clearest amber, but the roof is made of mussel shells that open and close with the tide. This is a wonderful sight to see, for every shell holds glistening pearls, any one of which would be the pride of a queen's crown.

Now, the Sea King had been a widower for years, so his old mother kept house for him. She was a clever woman, but exceedingly proud of her noble birth, so she flaunted twelve oysters on her tail while the other ladies of the court were only allowed to wear six. She was an admirable woman though, particularly because she was extremely fond of her granddaughters. They were six lovely girls, but the youngest was the most beautiful of them all. Her skin was as soft and tender as a rose petal, and her eyes were as blue as the deep sea, and like all the others her body ended in a glimmering fish tail.

Every day they would play all day in the palace, down in the great halls where live shells and sea flowers grew on the walls. Whenever the high amber windows were opened the fish would swim in, just as swallows dart in our rooms when we open the windows. However, these fish would swim right up to the little princesses to eat out of their hands and be petted.

Outside the palace was a huge garden, with deep green kelp trees. Their fruits swelled like succulent peaches, and their blossoms flamed like emerald fire on their constantly waving stalks. A strange blue veil lay over everything down in the sea floor. You would have thought yourself aloft in the air with only the blue sky above and beneath you, rather than down at the bottom of the sea. When there was a dead calm, you could just see the sun far up in the distance, like a golden flower with light streaming from its calyx.

Seras Victoria often felt ill at ease floating along the endless blue that seemed to go on forever, with nothing but the dark blue to make her fear the creatures of the deep that might be hidden below and endless light blue above. Whenever she went out, she would inevitably hover near the ocean floor or the palace walls, but not before looking up at the golden sun far above. At such times, she would wish to reach out to it like a beacon in the dark, or a sort of anchor to steady herself in the endless abyss.

"Mein Gott, Seras Victoria," Schrödinger would say, "You would think the wide ocean was trying to suck you out, the way you cling to the rocks!"

"Sh-shut up!" she would retort, but still cling to the rocks or duck within the palace just the same.

As for the surface, nothing gave the princesses as much pleasure as hearing about the world of humans above. The old grandmother would tell them all she knew about ships and cities, people and animals. What seemed nicest to her were the flowers a fragrant and the "fish" floating among their trees singing loudly and sweetly. The old grandmother had to call the little birds "fish," for the princesses would not have known what she was talking about, for they had never seen a bird.

"When you turn fifteen," the grandmother often said to the little princesses, "you will be allowed to rise up out of the ocean and sit on the rocks in the moonlight, and watch the great ships sailing by. You will see forests and towns beyond the shore as well."

Seras Victoria would lean against the royal pillars and listen in rapture to the old grandmother's tales about the surface world. A poor orphan that worked as a chamber maid for the Sea King's royal daughters since her own parents had died in her early childhood, Seras felt she had little to live for beyond the hope that one day she could visit the beautiful surface world that her own mother used to tell her about.

Young Seras could still remember a time when she and her mother and father lived in a coral reef near the surface, where the water was bright blue and the surface sparkled gold all the time. She remembered how her beautiful, smiling mother would go on and on about how wonderful the world above. Seras remembered how her mother used to sit her down on a rock and comb her hair with a piece of coral and try to put shells and starfish in it as she told her about the surface; but Seras always used to shake it off and dart around wildly like a squid. She used to love how the water felt running through her wild hair, and how her father used to catch her and spin her around as they played together. She remembered how her mother would smile wryly but hold her hands and rub her nose just the same, and how they would all lay among the colorful reef plants (as we surface folk would lay among the grass in our fields) and watch fish, turtles, and dolphins swim overhead. Seras would often grow giddy with excitement and swim around her parents as they laughed and smiled, and told her of the surface animals and objects above.

That was, until the bottomless fathoms below came to claim her parents. Seras remembered how they used to always have to go in as the waters grew dark since fearsome creatures came out of the deep to hunt; but one day and the large toothy creatures had come out early and invaded their reef sanctuary and how they had devoured her parents in water red with blood. Seras shuddered to remember how she had tried to defend her parents and how she had been bitten through, knocked aside, and heard nothing but a monstrous roar as her world went black. She had fought to stay awake, but passed out as the waters around her looked and tasted red with her parents' blood, and how the last thing she saw was her mother being devoured by sea monsters.

She had woken alone and afraid, with all traces of her parents long gone. The dark and empty ocean at night, with nothing but reef plants that swayed with the tide, had brought the little mermaid more despair than anyone could know. She had drifted aimlessly after they were gone, not knowing what to do or how to get on without them. The whimpering child had been calmed by the hiss of little eels, and she had followed them as they migrated along a warm ocean current until they drifted into waters enchanted into beauty by the living god known as the Sea King. His capital truly was a gem of a city, yet its beauty was lost on young Seras. She cared for nothing but her own colorful reef and her smiling parents, who were now gone. Yet a servant had taken pity on the poor orphan and arranged for her to get a job working as a chamber maid for the Sea King's youngest daughter, and there she remained.

Seras felt like the world was dark and bleak when she thought of the abyss below, and bright and happy when she thought of the waters above. One of her mother's greatest wishes was to sit with her on the rocks above the surface and feel the waves licking at their fins, to point to the clouds in the sky, to watch the gulls as they flew by. Seras held an image in her mind of her and her mother and father sitting together on a rock above the surface, watching the sun and the clouds and the gulls, with her mother's arms around her waist and her father's strong arms strung protectively around them both.

For years, Seras held this image in her heart like you or I would hold the picture of a loved one in a locket.

Despite this, Seras remained dour and unpleasant. She rarely smiled or talked with anyone, and turned away from the royal princesses when they tried to coax her to play. It was not long before they stopped asking her to play altogether, for most said she looked just as dark and demonic as the creatures of the deep, with her eyes glowing with hate. However, she did not seek out to hurt anyone, and only tried to be on her own when she was not engaged in some task or another. To that end, she often lashed out at others.

"Has the chamber maid been causing some problems again?" the Sea King asked one day.

"Yes, Your Majesty," one of the servants answered, "It appears one of the fish that come in from the windows tried to take a toy she was playing with, and she thrashed it with a rock!"

"What was she doing playing, when she should be working?" the Dowager Queen demanded.

"T'was her meal time," a servant answered, "I suppose she wanted to pass time before the royal princesses returned from their outing."

"And now all the other fish are afraid to come into the princesses' chambers since she is here!" said another.

"None of the other servants or wild life have taken to her either," the Sea King agreed. "Had she anywhere else to go I would push her out in an instant. However, if the little maid continues to cause problems, she will no longer be welcome in our Sea Palace."

And so for years, Seras held onto her job by a mere thread. Despite her dour attitude, she was a diligent little maid that tended to the youngest princess's royal bedchamber better than even most adults. She was not distracted by play or chatter as other servants were; preferring instead to do her work and retire to a shaded place where she could play alone.

Her only friend in the world was a little sea devil by the name of Schrödinger, who showed up in her life quite suddenly and refused to leave. She did not fully know how they became friends, or even why he liked to be around her, but he seemed quite taken from the moment they met and never quite decided he wanted to go away.

It was by chance that Seras was in the room when he broke into the Royal Palace one day just to show he could. He had turned up quite suddenly in the throne room while all the nobles were gathered to have a serious discussion about governing, and he had laughed at their cries of consternation.

"A Sea Devil? Here?" the Dowager Queen barked.

"How did he get in?" the Sea King cried.

"My deepest apologies, majesties!" the captain of the guard had cried, "There did not seem to be any breech in security!"

"You are wasting your time," the little boy had gloated, "for no guards can catch me! I am everywhere und nowhere!"

As the Sea King and Dowager Queen simultaneously balked and sneered down on him with contempt, and the royal guards scrambled into the throne room and pointed their tridents at him, Seras had been swimming through the room. She was off to the side, under the pillars that held up the mussel ceiling, with a few of the little princesses' toys in her hands. She did not fully understand what was going on, and so looked at him with blank curiosity.

'He's only a child,' Seras thought, clutching the toys to her chest, 'just like me.'

He looked to be a few years younger than her, and looked remarkably like her except that he was also much more animalistic in appearance. While you and I would think of merpeople as looking completely human except for the fish tail past their navels and small slivers of gills under their jaws, this boy was almost completely fishlike all over his body. His scales began under his arms instead of his hips, his fingers were webbed and clawed, his teeth were long and sharp, he had some sort of fins for ears sticking out of his short blond hair, and he had long barbels (whiskers for fish) sticking out of his hair and cheeks.

'What is he?' she thought, 'What is he after?'

At that moment, the little fin ears and barbels twitched, and he looked right at her. He then stared at her very intently for a very long time, without moving or blinking. Seras glared right back. She was very competitive even at her mellowest moments, and did not like to lose staring contests. His eyes were large and silver-green, and glowed in the dark, which seemed to brighten the longer he stared at her. It creeped Seras out.

"Stop it!" she finally growled.

Without breaking eye contact, he bowed slightly and said, "Guten tag."

Seras gasped. She did not know how to respond. What did he say? Was he being polite? Rude? Should she be polite back or tell him to bugger off?

After a bit of an internal debate, Seras finally sighed and bowed her head. "Guten tag…" she murmured back.

The boy laughed slightly, looked at her with that same unreadable expression, and then turned away.

Being a child at the time, Seras blew a raspberry and swam away.

This did not matter though, because he later turned up in the royal gardens after Seras had put away the little princesses' toys and the guards had chased him out of the royal palace. Seras gasped when she saw him floating overhead.

"What are you doing here?!" she cried.

"Just came to see the sights," he said carelessly, "What are you doing here?"

"I work here!" she retorted.

"So I can see!" he said carelessly, rolling over so that he hung upside down in the water, "It looks so boring!"

"What do you care? You aren't even supposed to be here!" Seras snapped.

"Please, no one can make me leave," he said carelessly, swirling around so that he was right side up again, "I am everywhere und nowhere."

Seras hissed like an eel.

She was not the brightest girl, and so it was only a few minutes later that she thought to say, "Maybe you should be 'everywhere und nowhere' somewhere else!"

He laughed at this little display of wit, and hovered closer.

"The guards are going to catch you if you stay around here!"

"Let them come," he said, "I will just come back if they take me away."

Sure enough, the guards came to chase him away soon after, and he was indeed back to bother Seras not long after that. She did not fully understand why he was forbidden to be in the royal city, but she knew she did not like him because he was cocky and arrogant.

However, this did little good.

No matter how Seras would snap or snarl at him, no matter how much she tried to hit or thrash him, Schrödinger would always laugh her off and come back for more. Sometimes he would go away for a while, especially if Seras sent him away in a particularly hostile huff or if the guards came to escort him out, but inevitably he always came back. And when he came back, he always hovered close to Seras. She did not understand why he chose to hang around her when there were so many other children or fish to bother, and she often tried to make him want to leave by being rude and unpleasant.

However, Schrödinger was immune to Seras' hostility. He was not at all bothered by her dour attitude or her hostile disposition. If anything, he seemed to like her all the more for it. He did not set out to annoy her per se, but he always teased her for some reaction and was glad for any kind he got. Seras was annoyed by his constant pestering, but she would have been lying if she said she completely despised his company.

"Why are you always following me?" she demanded one day.

"Isn't it obvious?" he asked, smiling that same unreadable smile.

It was not, but Seras softened toward him over time. Eventually, she resigned herself to being followed by him as a shark is followed by a pilot fish.

In fact, a strange symbiosis formed between the two. While he would never admit to it, Seras suspected that Schrödinger floated carelessly from place to place because he was searching for something (perhaps some sort of amusement), and whatever it was he was looking for, he found it in Seras. While she would never admit it to anyone, least of all herself, Seras was very lonely and found a companion in the persistent Schrödinger.

"We are like two sharks in a single egg," Schrödinger would grin, and try to cuddle up to Seras.

"Get away!" she would spit, and dart off.

Even the guards eventually realized the futility of trying to keep him out of the capital completely, and so they forbade him from entering the royal palace but not the royal grounds. This was apparently a compromise that Schrödinger could live with, and so he stayed away from the palace and came to play with Seras only when she went out on the grounds.

"You took so looooooong, Seras!" he complained once, "In the entire time it took you to tidy the little princess's bedchamber, I went all the way to the deepest trench, found some sunken treasure, got chased by a glowing monster, got my head chomped off, und came back. Maybe you should think about hiring some help, mein Schatzi."

"You better stop making fun of my parents right now!" Seras shouted angrily.

"I'm serious…"

But Seras smacked him and swam away.

This is not to say Schrödinger was a bad friend. On the contrary, he often remembered things about Seras that others quite forgot or never knew to begin with, and he often encouraged her interests and hobbies, like her love of the surface world and all connected to it.

Despite her fear of the endless abyss, Seras would often come out into the royal grounds when she was not cleaning the royal bedchambers.

Out in the royal grounds, each little princess had her own small garden plot where she could dig and plant whatever she liked. One of them made her little flower bed in the shape of a whale, another shaped hers like a little mermaid, but the youngest of them made hers as round and golden as the sun. Seras was not a royal princess and so did not have a plot of her own, but she often tended to the youngest princess's garden since she was often off exploring sunken ships, and she often ran her fingers over the flowers that were golden as the sun.

Seras was an unusual child, quiet and wistful when she was not dour and glaring, so when the royal sisters decorated their gardens with all kinds of odd things they had found in sunken ships, Seras would moon over them and contrast their appearance to the sun flowers. Sometimes, Seras would borrow the little treasures just for a moment, and lie in the sun flowers and look up at the real sun above, and pretend she was a human being lying in a bed of flowers beneath the golden sun in the surface above.

Schrödinger alone noticed these little peculiarities and often made fun of her for it. However, he also began to bring back little treasures that he claimed to have also found in sunken ships as well.

One day, as Seras tended the youngest princess's flowers, she looked up to see Schrödinger hovering near her with his hands behind his back and a mischievous grin on his face.

"… What's all this about?" Seras glared skeptically.

"I haf brought you a present, mein Schatzi," he gloated.

"Stop calling me Schatzi," Seras said automatically.

"Fine," he shrugged, "I guess you don't want your present."

"No, wait! I do! Just tell me what it is!"

"I will only tell you after you pick a hand!"

"You must be joking!" Seras cried.

"I am not, just pick a hand!"

"What if it's a trick?"

"Now, would I do such a thing?"

"Yes! All the time!"

"Well then, I guess I should take my present elsewhere."

"Schrödinger!"

"All right, which hand do you want it from?"

Seras growled in frustration, and then pointed to the left hand. Her glare promised that if this was a trick, she would slug him.

Schrödinger presented her with a silver dinner fork that you or I would eat our meals with.

However, Seras gasped in awe, and then reached out to hold it like it was a priceless treasure.

"How did you ever find something so wonderful?"

"I found it in a sunken ship not too far from here," Schrödinger gloated, "You could haf found it too, if you had come with me."

"I'm not going out there!" Seras cried, "There are sharks in those waters!"

"Please, I would never let a shark eat you."

"As if you could do anything about it," Seras grimaced, thinking of her failed rescue of her parents.

However, she smiled slightly as she examined the fork more closely.

"What is it?" she finally asked.

Schrödinger closed his eyes, puffed up his chest and placed his hands on his hips like he was a real authority.

"It's a dinglehopper!" he exclaimed.

Seras frowned. "No, it's not!"

"Yes it is."

"That's such a stupid name!"

"Well, it's what it's called."

"Yeah right!"

"It is!"

"Like I believe that! Every time you say something has a stupid-sounding name, it always turns out to be a lie!"

How could she forget the Snarflat Incident of '29? Seras had gone around thinking that a little brown, bulbous pipe that Schrödinger had given her was called a snarflat, until the royal court composure had corrected her… it was really a small saxophone, used to make fine music by blowing into it. Seras had then chucked it at Schrö's head.

In spite of his mischief, Seras continued to receive and collect little gifts until she no longer had room in her tiny toy chest. She thought that was the end of her collection of human trinkets, until Schrödinger surprised her one day by finding a little grotto near the palace to hide her possessions, far away from the little princess's grabbing hands.

With a loyal (if mocking) companion to pass the time and a secret trove to store her treasures, Seras slowly mellowed enough that adults and children alike were not completely frightened by the mere sight of her.

However, the only adult that really took to Seras was the aforementioned royal court composer. He was an old, fat, balding merman that was about as thick as a porpoise, with the negative buoyancy of a shark. He often floated along with his giant pot belly hanging out and his tiny fish fin perfectly still, with his arms at his sides and flapping of his hands to stay afloat. He often grew tired from this minimal effort though, and often panted from exhaustion.

Regardless, he was a genius composer and an overall kindhearted fellow, and took a shining to the little maid.

"Seras… Wake up, Seras…"

Seras woke to the sound of his deep baritone, not realizing she had fallen asleep from exhaustion after escorting the youngest princess to rehearsal and running errands for her. She would have panicked on being late with her work had she not being creeped out by the fat, smelly, panting merman floating before her.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

"I am the royal court composer! The Great Baron Vladimir Harkonnen!"

"AH!" Seras screamed and fled outright. Nobles never talked to her unless she had done something wrong!

"Ah! Don't flee! Don't flee! Just wait! Come back! That is, don't swim away!"

Seras stopped to look at him.

"Seras, I want to give you my support! You are always working so hard. Now, go ahead and ask me anything you want! And don't hold back!"

"Um… Well… it's just…" If he had asked her several years later, she would have been earnest in her question. Now? She was an angry and skeptical child that did not see the good in anything, and questioned the sincerity of his offer. However, maybe…?

Seras sighed. "Everything's in the pits. My mum and dad are dead, I'm stuck on the ocean floor, I can't leave because of dark waters and sea monsters that live on the ocean floor around this magic city, I can't visit the surface for a very long time, I always get in trouble when my mistress does something bad or skips out on some to do, everybody hates me, and every time I try to do something right, it falls back in my face! Oh, and the royal grandmother wants to push me out. Will the rest of my life be this unhappy?"

Harkonnen just stared blankly. "Uh…"

"I KNEW IT!" Seras despaired, and set off again.

"WAIT! WAIT!" he called frantically after her, "THAT DOESN'T COUNT! COME BACK! I LIED! IT'S NOT THAT BAD! **WAIT**!"

Seras whimpered unhappily and looked back at him.

"Listen, Seras, I cannot control what has happened in your life so far," he said, "But I can offer you some consolation."

"And what's that?"

"Why don't you come and work as a stage hand for my royal concerts?" he said. "You have to escort the youngest princess to rehearsals anyway (since she is always skipping out), so this way you can stay, sing, and dance with other mermaids that are interested in music just as you are, rather than swimming all the way back to the palace to work some more before swimming back here to escort the youngest princess home."

"I'm not interested in music, Harkonnen," Seras said.

"Really? But you sing so beautifully," he said.

"I don't sing," she frowned.

"Then you have such a lovely voice."

"What do you care, anyway?"

"I just want to see you foster your talents just as your dear mother did—"

"You knew my mother?!"

"Of course!" he cried, "She was one of the finest sopranos I ever had the pleasure of training! It's a shame she was not of noble blood, or she would have been the crown jewel of my professional achievement!"

Seras remembered how beautifully her mother had sung. Her voice filled her heart and mind with melodies and lullabies, which Seras recalled in her mind and wept over every night before she slept.

She accepted Harkonnen's offer without another word.

At first, Seras only did small things like bring tools to help decorate the stage, then she started helping with curtains and props, but with more coaxing from Harkonnen she eventually joined the chorus, where they did indeed foster some of her singing talent. Seras was convinced that her voice was like metal scraping against rocks compared to her mother, but Harkonnen would not let her give up because of it.

Working for Harkonnen brought Seras only small joy though, not just because helping with the stage gave her more work and less time to play and explore, but because the Sea King and Dowager Queen would not hear of a commoner taking any role that might be filled by their infinitely worthier royal princesses. Harkonnen had tried to give Seras larger singing roles, but the monarchs rebuked him so savagely that Seras was convinced there was no future for her there.

Despite her secret home in the grotto, her companionship with Schrödinger, and her part time job working as a stage hand for Harkonnen, Seras remained quite taken with the surface world and all connected to it.

As Seras grew up serving the royal princesses, she often listened eagerly as the little princesses grew old enough to visit the surface and tell each other of what they encountered.

When the eldest princess had her fifteenth birthday, she came back with a hundred things to tell her sisters about. The most marvelous thing of all, she said, was to lie on a sand bar in the moonlight, when the sea was calm, and to gaze at the large city on the shore, where the lights twinkled like hundreds of stars; to listen to music; to hear the chatter and clamor of carriages and people; to see so many church towers and spires; and to hear the ringing bells. Because she could not enter the city, it was just what she most dearly longed to do.

Oh, how intently Seras listened. After this, whenever she looked out the open window at night and looked up through the dark blue waters, she thought of that great city with all of its clatter and clamor, and even fancied that in these depths she could hear the church bells ring.

The next year, the second sister had permission to rise up to the surface and swim wherever she pleased. She came up just at sunset, and she said that it was the most marvelous sight she had ever seen. The heavens had a golden glow, and as for the clouds - she could not find words to describe their beauty. Splashed with red and tinted with violet, they sailed over her head. But much faster than the sailing clouds were wild swans in a flock. Like a long white veil trailing above the sea, they flew toward the setting sun. She too swam toward it, but down it went, and all the rose-colored glow faded from the sea and sky.

The following year, the third sister ascended, and as she was the boldest of them all she swam up a broad river that flowed into the ocean. She saw gloriously green, vine-colored hills. Palaces and manor houses could be glimpsed through the splendid woods. She heard all the birds sing, and the sun shone so brightly that often she had to dive under the water to cool her burning face. In a small cove she found a whole school of mortal children, paddling about in the water quite naked. She wanted to play with them, but they took fright and ran away. Then along came a little black animal (it was a dog, but she had never seen a dog before) that barked ferociously that she took fright and fled to the open sea. But never could she forget the splendid woods, the green hills, and the nice children who could swim in the water without fish tails.

The fourth sister was not so venturesome. She stayed far out among the rough waves, which she said was a marvelous place. You could see all around you for miles and miles, and the heavens up above you were like a vast dome of glass. She had seen ships, but they were so far away that they looked like sea gulls. Playful dolphins had turned somersaults, and monstrous whales had spouted water through their nostrils so that it looked as if hundreds of fountains were playing all around them.

The fifth sister's birthday came in the wintertime, so she saw things that none of the others had seen. The sea was a deep green color, and enormous icebergs drifted about. Each one glistened like a pearl, she said, but they were loftier than any church steeple built by man. They assumed the most fantastic shapes, and sparkled like diamonds. She had seated herself on the largest one, and all the ships that came sailing by sped away as soon as the frightened sailors saw her there with her long hair blowing in the wind.

In the late evening clouds filled the sky, thunder cracked and lightning darted across the heavens. Black waves lifted those great bergs of ice on high, where they flashed when the lightning struck. On all the ships the sails were reefed and there was fear and trembling. But quietly she sat there, upon her drifting iceberg, and watched the blue forked lightning strike the sea.

Seras grew up hearing such stories as she went from a sour-faced child to a pretty young maiden. Though she grew quite buxom and her hair remained short and wild (which was against the mer standard of beauty), she often combed the sea princesses' long hair and decked their slim bodies in pretty shells and pearls so she could listen to their stories as they told each other of the surface around their joint coral vanity and mother of pearl mirrors.

Each of the sisters took delight in the lovely new sights when she first rose up to the surface of the sea at first, but when they became grown-up girls allowed to go wherever they liked, they became indifferent to it. They would become homesick, and in a month they said that there was no place like the bottom of the sea, where they felt so completely at home.

On many an evening the older sisters would rise to the surface, arm in arm, all five in a circle. On the evenings when the mermaids rose through the water like this, their youngest sister stayed behind all alone, looking after them with her bottom lip a quivering.

"Oh, how I do wish I were fifteen!" she said. "I know I shall love that world up there and all the people who live in it."

Seras frowned at this, for she was a year younger than the youngest princess and so had that much longer to wait. She often looked wistfully up as she did her chores alone in the dark, and might have grown even more dour had Schrödinger not often come to pester her, or Harkonnen kept her busy working as a stage hand for the royal opera house.

Over the years, Seras slowly regained her cheerful nature from before her parents' demise, and she took more chances going closer and closer to the surface. Her fear of open water lessened and her desire to explore sunken ships increased. In fact, one day when she was sent to collect fishing nets to decorate the stage for a royal concert in honor of the youngest princess's birthday, Seras had trailed close to a ship above.

From below the water, she could vaguely hear the mariners singing words that sounded like:

"_I'll tell you a tale of the bottomless blue  
And it's hey to the starboard, heave ho!  
Look out, lad, a mermaid be waiting for you  
In mysterious fathoms below!"_

Little did they dream a pretty young mermaid was down below, stretching her white arms up toward the keel of their ship!

Or that she cut off part of their net to take with her in the mysterious fathoms below.

Seras wrapped the net around her shoulders like a coil of rope and looked again upon the ship above. She felt she could vaguely hear them talking and see them looking out over the edge, yet she could not get close enough. Oh, how she wished to break through the surface to see their faces and hear their chatter!

From beneath the water, she almost thought she could see one of the humans looking down at her.

Seras gasped and darted further down in the fathoms below, looked back up worriedly, and then sighed with relief. Not wanting to get in trouble with the authorities again (for she often came too close to the surface for their comfort), Seras darted back down to the sea floor and drifted along, passing reef plants and sea mammals resting at the bottom, until once again she drifted into the magical waters of the Sea Capital along with the other merfolk.

As they all gathered to be seated in the royal concert hall, Seras drifted backstage with the net to help set up.

"Oh, thank Neptune you have returned in time," one of the stage hands exclaimed. "You found the sea net in the sunken ship I told you about?"

"No," Seras said, "but I found some off a ship that was passing by."

This was met with a mixture of disapproval and admiration.

"You took this from a ship still inhabited by humans?"

"Seras, you're too young for that!"

"Don't worry, I did not break through the surface or let them see me," Seras said.

They would have argued further, but the lead stage hand reminded them that the curtain would draw in less than ten minutes and they had to hurry.

Outside, Seras could hear the announcer welcome the royal highnesses, the Sea King and Dowager Queen, with much pomp and circumstance, and the royal court composer Baron Harkonnen with considerably less celebration. Seras felt it hardly fair since he wrote and composed the concert, but figured she was not the one in charge.

As Harkonnen took his place, Seras could hear him exchange a few words with the king.

"I am so looking forward to this performance, Harkonnen," the Sea King said enthusiastically.

"Of course, Your Majesty!" Harkonnen cried, "This will be the finest symphony I have ever conducted! Your daughters will be spectacular!"

"Yes! And especially my youngest!"

"Yes… Yes, Sire. She has the most beautiful voice…" in a much quieter tone, he grumbled, "If only she would show up to rehearsals every once in a while."

Seras furrowed her brows. Show up to rehearsals…

Right on cue, the stage hands in charge of handling the princesses were beginning to panic. The elder princesses had long come out of makeup and taken their places in their stage shells. The youngest princess was not here. This was to be expected. The audience was full and she had not yet arrived. This was normal. The curtain was about to pull and she was not here… this was bad.

Most of them panicked and scrambled over what to do. Should they claim technical malfunctions and try to stall for time? No, the concert was already starting and they could not hold it back. Should they announce that the youngest princess was late and hold the concert? No, they would all get in trouble and it could mean their jobs. Should they…? Should they…? Should they…?

Amidst the panic, one of them spotted Seras.

"You were the princess's double during rehearsals!"

"Well, yes, because she was often absent and did not know her own lines…"

"Most of the audience has never seen the youngest princess! They will never know the difference!"

"But their royal majesties will never allow it!" Seras cried.

Before she could object further, they pushed her into makeup and threw the ceremonial garments on her.

Out on stage, the music started. It was too late to turn back now.

"_Ah, we are the daughters and granddaughters of Triton and Amphitrite!_  
_Great father and grandmother who love us and named us well!  
Aquata, Arista, Atina, Adella, Allana!"_

"Please, this will never work!" Seras cried.

"Too late now!" and they shut the clam.

_"And then there is the youngest in her musical debut  
Our final little sister, we're presenting her to you  
To sing a song Harkonnen wrote, her voice is like a bell  
She's our sister, Arie-"_

When the giant ceremonial clam opened, the sisters all gasped in horror.

Harkonnen gasped as well, and looked back fearfully at the royal majesties.

They might have been able to save the show, had the Sea King and Dowager Queen not been livid.

"SERAS VICTORIA!"

Seras' eyes snapped open almost a year later. She was slumped over a large rock on the outskirts of the Sea Capital, where the water was colder and darker thanks to the weaker magic. She pulled herself up with difficulty, and felt the weight of the sea net filled with large clams pulling her down.

After the debacle of the youngest princess's musical debut, Seras had been punished more thoroughly than she had ever been punished before. The Sea King and Dowager Queen had called her to the royal throne room after their subjects were sent home, where they gave her the verbal thrashing of her life.

The lifelong threat of pushing her out finally came true when they stripped her job as a chamber maid and forbid her from ever working for royalty ever again, since she had shamelessly used her connection to try to impersonate one of the royal princesses. To that end, she was forbidden from ever working or performing for Harkonnen, or singing to the public ever again. She was never to sing before their royal subjects, even if it was within the chorus.

Harkonnen himself received a not insignificant slap on the wrist, but he was still a baron and a court composer, and so his penalty was not so severe.

Seras fell into another depression following the Sea King and Dowager Queen's punishment, and resigned herself to a life of labor in the ocean floor. She continued to help as a stage hand indirectly because she liked Harkonnen, but took a second job harvesting bundles of clams to bring to the Sea Capital (so city merfolk would not have to scavenge for their food, just as surface farmers grow food to sell to people in the city) since she often went out to explore sunken ships with Schrödinger anyway. It was not such a grueling job since there was not such an overwhelming demand for clams, but it was tedious and disheartening.

To go from a chamber maid in the beautiful and sparkling palace, whose only duty was to straighten the royal princesses' many toys and later baubles, to a laborer who went around the dark outskirts of the glittering city with a large net slung over her shoulders, collecting large clams and lugging them back to the sea capital where everyone sang and danced all day but she was forbidden to sing or dance among them… this was not the life she had ever wanted.

Harkonnen looked on her with pity when she dropped a net full of various clams and star fish for his stage.

"Seras… Miss Seras…" she heard the familiar baritone murmur behind her.

"What is it, Harkonnen?" she sighed.

"Seras, I just came to see how you were doing. You seem so down lately."

"Wouldn't you?" Seras asked.

"Come, Seras, it is not that bad. Soon you will be able to rise to the surface just as you have always dreamed!"

"But my birthday is not for many days yet, and it just seems to take forever! The closer it gets, the longer the wait!"

Harkonnen blinked, and Schrödinger laughed in the background.

"Seras, your birthday is tomorrow."

Her eyes widened.

This was Seras' life before she finally turned fifteen, when she was allowed to explore the surface above.

* * *

I'll admit my classism came out in this chapter. I'm not a fan of the idea that people from wealthy families are inherently more worthwhile than those from poor families, or even that "royal/noble/pure blood" means anything since financial situations are circumstantial; socially gained, socially maintained, socially lost.

Also, I dislike Ariel. Not because she "sold her voice to get a man" (which I think is asinine since the film makes it clear she already wanted to live on the surface before she even saw the guy), but because I think she is selfish and inconsiderate. She does whatever she wants, whenever she wants, without any regard for how her actions affect others. I would not mind if she ever showed any remorse when called out on it, but she just blows people off when they try to tell her how her actions negatively affect them. (Especially Sebastian.) I really have no patience for people like that, so I kind of wanted to portray how much it sucks being the person who has to clean up after the inconsiderate person.


	2. The Surface

Author's Notes: I honestly struggled with when to set this story. Setting it in generic old times is all well and good, but how to present Alucarrd? The guy is based on a famous historical and literary figure that lives in three distinct times and places: Vlad III of 15th Century Wallachia (which is not too close to the Mediterranean or Atlantic), Count Dracula of Victorian Era London and Transylvania (who crosses the ocean a few times), and Hellsing's Alucard of England 1898-1999. I uh… hope you like what I wound up picking.

Disclaimer: I do not own or make money off of Hellsing, H.C. Andersen's or Disney's "The Little Mermaid." I will again borrow text from H.C. Andersen's story to help with this chapter, but it's not to plagiarize. I just think his text can help tell it better.

* * *

When Seras Victoria was finally old enough to visit the surface, she cried out with joy and shot up like a bullet. After years of watching the royal princesses go up time after time without being able to follow, Seras was finally able to swim to the surface above.

"Seras Victoria, wait up!" they cried.

"Please wait up, Seras!"

"We can't keep up with you!"

"SERAS VICTORIA! WAIT!"

But Seras would not wait. For years, she had watched them go up without her as she waited for her turn, and so she now she was done with waiting. They could watch her go up without them for once.

Seras did not realize she had felt like she had a dead weight inside of her for most of her life until she departed for the surface. The higher she swam, the lighter she felt, until she felt like her insides were light as a bubble. She looked on in rapture as the ocean around her turned bluer and brighter. She felt her heavy spirit lift lighter and lighter, until she felt as giddy as a bubble. She giggled with a giddy joy.

"Vell, vell, I don't remember seeing you this happy," a familiar voice said beside her.

She gasped, and turned to see the impish little boy that looked too much like her.

"Schrödinger?!"

"Surprised to see me?" he smirked, "You shouldn't be. I am everywhere, und nowhere."

"Whatever that means!" Seras cried.

He said that so often, yet he never explained what it meant. In fact, Schrödinger rarely gave Seras straight answers or explanations to anything, no matter how often she asked.

"You ready to see the surface, Seras?" he smirked.

"YES!" she cried, her joy renewed.

"Vell then, the last one to the surface is a rotten shark's egg!" and he darted above.

"Hey, no fair!" Seras giggled, and she darted up as well.

Faster and higher they went, darting like squids. Soon their race softened to a kind of dance and they swirled around each other as they ascended, laughing and giggling.

On the way up, Seras encountered a huge pod of giant sperm whales swimming along. She knew their kind all too well, for they were one of the few whale species that often dove into the deepest part of the sea where the merpeople lived, hunting giant squid for their meals and returning briefly to the surface only to breathe. Do not think their massive size makes them an evil species though, for Seras had encountered many sea creatures in her life and knew few as friendly or obliging as the sperm whales.

Their language was that of a series of chittery clicks and creaks, and their disposition as playful as a dolphin's despite their great size. Seras knew a bit of their language from her father, who in truth was fonder of the sea than her mother had been, and Seras learned more still from random encounters in the deep. Seras used to ask them questions about the surface and their lives above, whenever they swam near her little grotto outside the Sea Capital.

Presently, they clicked in greeting, and Seras squealed in reply.

They made questioning sounds after her well-being, and she squealed to let them know of her joy. She was happy and having fun. They squealed and clicked in joy for her. They were pleased that she was happy and having fun.

Seras quickly passed the sperm whales, as she was still racing Schrödinger. Rising above the massive whales as large as ships gave her a shudder of joy, for she had never risen above whales before. Always, she looked upon their massive shadows from below, just as she looked up at the keels of ships. She could see and sense that the surface was close, and felt a great thrill like that she had never known.

She remembered a song she had once heard mariners singing on their ship when she drew close enough. Something like: _"down in the bottomless fathoms below…!"_

Seras squealed with joy, did a great summersault in the water, and darted for the surface with reckless abandon. _"Up in the endless fathoms above…!"_

She broke through the surface with a big splash and inhaled her first lungful of air like the first breath of life.

She then sank back into the water, practically catatonic in her joy. Seras could not remember being this happy.

"You're so slooooow, Seras," Schrödinger smirked from a little ways off, "In the time it took you to make go straight to the surface, I went all the way to the ocean floor, got chased by a shark und came back. Perhaps you should think of binding your breasts, mein Schatzi."

Seras scoffed to let him know she didn't care. She grinned as she lay back so that her body could bob up upon the waves. She was not used to the bob of the surface, as she was more familiar with the sway of the tide, and so found it to be great fun.

Harkonnen had kept her working till very late, so the sun had just set by the time she broke through the surface. Never the less, the clouds still shone like gold and roses, and in the delicately tinted sky the clear gleam of the evening star did shine. The air was mild and fresh and the sea bobbed rather gently.

Out in the distance, an armada of ships sailed by. Seras watched them curiously, now a little shy since she could see them from above. They did not look at all like the giant turtle shells she saw from below, or like the busted, sand and moss-covered wrecks wedged into the ocean floor. They seemed so… flat and smooth and clean, like the little ships she found in bottles. She knew the people inside could see her if they looked out too, and so she approached with caution. Not once did Seras dive below the water though. She had spent so much of her life underwater that she did not want to go back if she could help it, even if it meant avoiding human eyes.

Nearest to her was a great three-master ship. Music and singing came from it, and as night came on dozens of brightly colored lanterns sprang into view, shining through the windows and doors. This fascinated Seras, but as she drew closer several rockets flew through the air and exploded in light.

Seras yelped and ducked underwater.

From below, she could hear muffled booms and see colorful lights.

Schrödinger laughed and laughed.

"You're such a duuuuuummkopf, Seras!" he gloated from above. He placed his hand under his chin, and seemed to rest his elbow against a wall that was not there, with his tail over his head. "You know those things can't hurt you!"

"What are they?" Seras asked.

"Fireworks, I think," he said, "They're used for celebrations."

Curiosity drew her head back above water, and she stared in rapture at the glowing lights. It seemed like all the stars in the sky were exploding in vibrant colors and falling all around her. Never had Seras seen such sparkling displays. Great suns spun around, splendid fire-fish darted through the air, and glittering showers draped around her like the leaves of the kelp gardens.

At first Seras stared in amazement, and then she cocked her head in interest. She soon began to giggle with the same giddy joy that she felt on drawing near the surface.

"You like them, Seras?"

"Very much!"

"Want to get a closer look?"

"You bet!"

And they skipped over to the ship like dolphins at play.

Seras looked up shyly at the ship and the many people she knew lay within.

Careful to avoid detection, she swam around the window of the main cabin. Each time she rose with the swell of the waves she peeped in through the glass windows to the crowd of thickly dressed people within. She was little disappointed to find they were scruffy, dodgy, hang-dog fellows dressed in coarse fabrics and covered with grizzles and eye patches and peg limbs and other deformities. It also looked like most of them were heading toward their surface.

Curiosity compelled Seras to grab onto the wooden ladder embedded onto the side of the ship and climb until she was able to look in on the deck of the ship, thanks to a hole in the wooden sides, or bulwarks.

Seras could hear joyous music from the deck, and see dozens of sailormen all drinking and dancing and singing so joyously that even she could not help feeling joyous right alongside them, no matter how scruffy they looked. Soon, even Seras found herself grinning and bobbing her head to the music, and wished she could climb on deck and dance among them.

From the main cabin, she could see scores of men covered in shadows filing out. Standing by the cabin door, nearest to her, was a very tall and tan man covered in many thick layers of coarse fabrics. He wore a thick green-brown coat and trousers over high black boots, a thick red scarf around his neck, and a wide-brimmed hat with a side pressed in. He had a long, angular face, a black patch over one eye, a smoking stick clenched between his teeth, and a long red-brown braid draped loosely around his neck like a scarf. He was looking away from her at first, with the patched eye closer to her, and then he looked right in her direction!

Seras gasped and pressed her back firmly against the outer ship wall.

When she thought it was safe to look again, she peered back over, only to find him looking over the rail and practically right at her!

"EEP!" Seras squeaked, and let go of the ship.

Seras' belly hit the water with a hard slap, and then she groaned in agony as she slowly sank below the surface.

Schrödinger laughed himself a fit to die.

"You should have seen the look on your face, Seras!"

"Oh, be quiet!" she snapped, then clutched her torso painfully.

"That's what you get for leaping before you look!" he gloated.

"Stop laughing or I'll smack you!" Seras snapped, and splashed him with water.

Schrödinger continued to laugh and splashed her back, but he slowly settled down.

"Es tut mir leid, Schatzi, you can just be so much fun. Are you going back up there?"

"Of course I am!" Seras cried enthusiastically, and climbed once more.

Schrödinger laughed again. "Nothing ever stops you!" and he climbed after her.

When she made it back up the side of the ship, Seras' annoyance melted away and she once again felt overjoyed to see humans up close!

She carefully avoided the eye of the strange one-eyed human though. He was still looking out over the bulwarks with a discerning eye, as though searching for her. Seras pressed herself against the shadows of the ship, waiting for him to leave. She could not watch the humans if he was watching out for her, and she was growing impatient for him to leave.

'Go away!' she thought petulantly.

Then, the loveliest of baritones called from a way in, "Captain Bernadotte, I need you."

"Of course you do," the one-eyed human grumbled, and turned to walk away.

Seras sighed with relief, then placed her hands once more on-deck and looked inside.

The sailors were still singing and dancing, but hidden almost in shadows was a very tall, dark, and formidable looking human that Seras had not seen before. Her heart pulsed just at the sight of him. He was easily the tallest and darkest man on the ship, and yet he had a captivating presence about him.

When fireworks once again lit up the sky, she saw that he was easily the most handsome creature she had ever seen in her life. His hair was as black as the night sky and so smooth and silky it seemed to reflect the starlight off its tresses. His face was as radiantly pale as the moon, and his eyes were as clear blue as the sea after a storm. Though she knew little of human fashion, even Seras could tell he was impeccably dressed. He wore a charcoal suit tucked into leather riding boots; his neck tied in a flamboyant, intricately knotted black cravat, and covered by a full-length black frock overcoat. Everything about him, from his appearance, manner and dress, reflected a confidence and regality that the entire royal family below could not equal.

Seras' clear blue eyes widened when she saw him, then they melted with deep infatuation.

"So, what do you think, Seras?" Schrödinger asked loudly from atop the bulwark, "Quite the sight, eh?"

"Schrödinger!" she hissed, and yanked him into her arms, "Get down from there! They'll see you!"

"Oh, I see. Don't want to get caught, eh?"

"You know a human's gaze is agony to a mermaid," she murmured, looking in once more.

"But I am not a mermaid!" he grinned.

"No, you're annoying," Seras said.

He chuckled. "You're such a spooooilsport, Seras!" he grinned, and nuzzled her.

"Get away," Seras blushed, and pushed him aside.

As Schrödinger did not want to hang off the side and Seras did not want him to rest on top of the bulwark, he draped his arms around her shoulders and contented himself by nuzzling her neck. Seras frowned, but eventually resigned herself to it and continued watching the humans she so adored.

The dark human was still talking to the one-eyed human, and there was something in his manner and way of talking that she found very alluring.

"I've never seen a human so regal before," she confessed as she saw the count walk among his men.

Seras rested her cheek against her crossed arms and sighed. "He's very handsome, isn't he?"

Schrödinger looked. "I don't know. He looks kind of dirty and scruffy to me."

Seras realized he was looking at the one-eyed human standing beside him!

"Not that one!" she giggled, and tilted his chin in the right direction. "The one as lovely as the moon."

As the celebrations continued, the two men continued to talk. Seras strained to hear what they were saying, but of course she could not. The scruffy mariner seemed very awkward and unsure, while the gorgeous gentlemen glowed with confidence and pride. The way he walked, the way he talked, the way he stood and carried himself… every gesture, every movement was pure divinity to Seras.

Schrödinger yawned beside her. "Boring! Let's go someplace else."

"You can go," Seras scowled, and then went back to mooning over the count.

Eventually, the two men drew close enough that she could hear a bit of their conversation.

"Your men handled themselves quite well in that battle, Captain Bernadotte."

"Eh, we are not so unseasoned as that, Count Dracula."

Count Dracula… Seras furrowed her brows. It was a very dark name, but also strangely... thrilling.

It got very late, but Seras could not take her eyes off the ship or the handsome count. The brightly colored lanterns were put out, rockets ceased flying through the air, and the cannons no longer boomed. But there was a mutter and rumble deep in the sea and gather clouds around, and the swell kept bouncing so high she could feel the water lapping at her fins.

"So, uh… you still want to pursue that Madam Mina lady, huh?"

"Yes," the count smirked, "She is truly a fine specimen of a woman."

The seaman looked uncomfortable. "You know she has married that bloke, Jonathan Harker, right?"

"She became engaged to him before she and I ever crossed paths," the Count smirked, "She may believe, as most women do, that it is her duty to remain faithful to the man she pledged her hand, even though he is infinitely unworthy of her, and she did so only before that a far more suitable match vied for her hand."

"And yet you punish adulteresses in your land," the captain said.

The count smirked, "And yet divorce exists in hers."

The captain looked uneasy at this.

If Seras had heard this from any other person, she would have been put out by such a blatant disregard for the sanctity of love and commitments. However, this count was so handsome and had such a wonderful speaking voice that everything he said was silver and diamonds to her.

The count seemed to notice the captain's unease, and smirked. "Fear not, captain. Once you encounter a woman that changes your entire world, you will understand."

Seras sighed.

Schrödinger retched.

"With all due respect, my count," the captain said, "you only saw a photograph of the woman and you encountered her only once before she set off to be married. Surely, she has not left that great an impact? Surely, there are better fish in the sea."

Seras listened eagerly to his words.

The count turned deathly calm. "With all due _disregard_, _captain_, he who has never manned the waters of his own heart has no right to judge those that brave the journey…" he paused, "Or his cheaque book."

"All right," the captain shrugged, "I know it is not my place."

"See to it that you remember," the count glared.

The captain shrugged, and took the smoking stick out of his mouth.

He seemed to think about something for a while, and then smirked.

"… Heh, in order for a girl to change my world…" he said after a while. "She would have to be a great beauty to behold."

"Appearance and shape means very little," the count said, "It is a woman's character that determines her worth. Same with men. Same with everyone."

"Well, if you find such a woman, let me know," the captain said. "I always figure, if there was such a one, she would cause a 'coup de foudre.' How do you say? It would hit like a bolt of lightning."

Right on cue, gathering clouds flashed lightning and rumbled with thunder in the distance.

The party began to wind down as the winds and waves began to increase. Now the ship really began to sail. Canvas after canvas was spread in the wind, the waves rose higher and higher, monstrous clouds gathered and lightning flashed in the distance.

The captain grimaced, "Ah, we are in for a terrible storm."

The handsome count retired into his cabin as the mariners made haste to reef the sails. The tall ship pitched and rolled as it sped through the angry sea. The waves rose up like towering black mountains, as if they would break over the masthead, but the swan-like ship plunged into the valleys between such waves and rose to ride their lofty heights.

To Seras this seemed like such good sport, but to the sailors it was nothing of the sort. The ship creaked and labored, thick timbers gave way under the heavy blows, waves broke over the ship, the mainmast snapped in two like a reed, the ship listed over on its side, and water burst into the hold.

Only then did Seras realize the sailors were in peril, and she darted over to see what she could do. Several mariners had managed to loose a few life boats from the fast sinking ship, and Seras wove between the sinking

One moment it would be black as pitch, then the next the lightning would flash so bright she could see every soul on board. Everyone was scrambling to jump off the ship, get into the life boats, or keep said life boats from tipping over in the great storm. Seras wove around the shattered beams to help any soul she could. This one would be sunk far below water and so she would push him up to the surface, while that one would have his boot tangled to some ropes tied to a large chunk of the ship that was sinking, so she would untangle the rope so he could rise to the surface.

Amidst the chaos she watched closely for the handsome count, and when lightning struck the ship she gasped and flinched back to see such fire. As the ship split in two she heard a great mast creek and splinter as it came loose, and began to collapse over him. The main mast fell around them, but when a great fiery splinter the size of a javelin looked like it would impale his heart, Seras' own felt a jolt of terror like that which she had never known and she bolted forward to save him.

At the very last second, Seras' hand shot out and she grabbed the mast before it could pierce his heart. The average mermaid's strength is truly greater than that of us mortals, and a year of hard labor dragging large nets of rocks, clams, and other heavy things had given her greater upper body strength besides. Regardless, Seras struggled to keep the wood from sinking into its mark. She placed a single arm on the count's chest and wrapped her tail around his waist and used all the strength in her body to keep her arm straight to that it would not impale him.

"Sir!" she cried, "You have to move!"

But he was unconscious. A large amount of debris had hit him on the head and knocked him.

Seras pushed the mast splinter aside, but the burning wood collapsed onto her and drove them both below water. She struggled to get it out of the way so it would not crush them both, and the next second she realized it was biting her hand and raining painful little. Seras did not understand this pain. It was the fire. Seras had never touched fire before. The burning wood was scorching her hand, and the little flaming splinters that shed off the main mast were snowing little flakes of ember onto her head and shoulders.

Seras wanted the discard it, but she couldn't, not without hurting him.

"Sir! You have to wake up! Please wake up!"

Seras did not know it, but the count had been driven into a deep state of despair. Not only had he been physically knocked into darkness, but the psychological knock of pain and loss had driven him to a deep despair. He had lost everything over the following year. He had lost his land, his estates, his lands, his servants, his world. He had been cast out, hated and rejected. Lucy had never wanted him. Mina had never wanted him. He had struggled and fought and nearly died to much and for what? He had nothing. He was nothing. There was nothing.

And yet…

"…_DRACULA…!"_

"…_DRACULA…!"_

'I hear a voice…' he vaguely thought, 'A distant voice calls out to me…'

"…_DRACULA!"_

"…_DRACULA!"_

'Who is it?' he thought, his soul drowned with despair, 'Who is it? Who is it who calls out to me? Who?'

His body was giving up and his mind was fading out from the seriousness of his injuries. Regardless, he opened his eyes for a moment, and through the fog of losing consciousness and through the dim light of the stormy night… he could see a girl with large blue eyes and blonde hair. His mind barely comprehended these before his eyes closed and his world went black.

Seras gritted her teeth and strained against the fire and weight of the wood. She could not hold out, as much as she wanted. There was no other way to save him.

"I'm so sorry for this, my count," she whispered, and with all of her strength she shoved the mast aside and let it fall over her.

The force of the impact shoved them both deep underwater, and the force of the waves and current drove her away from the count. For several wild moments, she did not know where he was and only prayed she reached him in time.

She had been scorched and nearly crushed, but she was determined to save him no matter what, and she darted back into the sinking debris of the shattered ship. She wove among all the floating planks and beams, careless of whether they crushed her.

She drove through the waves and rode their crests until she reached the count, who was still unconscious. She held his head above water, and then struggled to keep it afloat as she let the waves take them wherever they may.

Seras swam all night, keeping the count above water and trying to direct them anywhere the land might be.

When morning arrived and the storm had passed, not a trace of the ship remained. The sun rose out of the waters, gold and bright, and its beams seemed to bring the glow of life back to the cheeks of the Count, though his eyes remained closed.

Seras rested from paddling for a moment to gaze upon his beautiful face, and kissed his cold and pale forehead. As she stroked his wet hair in place, it seemed to her that he was smooth and cool as a marble statue.

"Please be all right," she whispered, and she kissed him again.

Then their heads each sank below water, and she heaved him back up with difficulty.

He was so large and tall compared to her, and wore so many thick layers of clothes that she had to discard most of them just to stay above the surface, yet it still took all of her strength to keep his head above water and keep them swimming toward shore.

"Oh, where's Schrödinger when I need him?" she thought.

The little catfish had been nowhere to be scene since the lightning had struck the ship.

Soon she saw dry land rise before her in high blue mountains, topped with snow as glistening white as a flock of swans. Down by the shore she saw splendid green woods, before which stood a church, or perhaps a convent; she didn't know which, but anyway it was a building. Orange and lemon trees grew in its garden, and tall palm trees grew beside the gateway. Here the sea formed a little harbor, quite calm and deep. Fine white sand had been washed up below the cliffs.

Seras swam up to the little harbor with the handsome count in her arms. With great difficulty, she heaved him out of the water and stretched him out on the sand. Her arms ached from pulling him all night, her fin scratched painfully against the sand, and she was ready to collapse from exhaustion.

He was so much bigger and taller than her, and even heavier out of water. However, she made sure to move his face away from the splash of waves, and to pillow his head up high in the warm sunlight.

When the count was safely lain out on the beach, Seras collapsed on top of him, gasping and panting. Every muscle in her body ached, and she longed to fall asleep in his arms.

"Well, that wasn't too bad, was it?"

Seras turned around to see the little sea devil smirking at her from out in the water.

"Schrödinger?!" Seras cried.

"Surprised to see me? You shouldn't be. I am everywere…"

"'Und novhere.' Ja, ja, where were you last night?!" Seras demanded.

"Well, I was going to help you, but I got so caught up by the fun of the storm, und you seemed to haf things well in hand."

"I was struggling for my life out there!" Seras retorted.

"Please, don't be so dramatic!"

"I'll show you dramatic if you don't…"

The count began breathing heavily, and Seras gasped with joy and embraced him.

"See? He's alive!"

"You would haf been all right if you had just left the sunken ship," but Seras was no longer listening.

"Look, he's breathing!" Seras cried, and tucked a silken hair away from his eyes.

"He's so beautiful…" she whispered, and tilted his chin so she could look more closely.

"_What would I give  
To live where you are?  
What would I pay  
To stay here beside you?  
What would I do to see you  
Smiling at me?"_

The bells began to ring in the great white building, and a number of young maidens came out into the garden.

Seras barely seemed to notice them as she continued to sing to the count:

"_Where would we walk?  
Where would we run?"_

One of the young maidens seemed to hear the singing, and she strayed from the group and came down to the beach to find out what it was.

The clouds broke as Seras sang:

_"If we could stay all day in the sun?"_

The count's eyes slowly began to open and the beams shined down on his face, and Seras' fingers tenderly brushed his cheek.

"_Just you and me…  
And I could be…"_

Seras' face was haloed in sunlight when the count opened his eyes. Through the fog of half-consciousness and the glow of sunlight, all he could truly discern was a beautiful young woman with dark skin (thanks to the shadows) and a pair of large blue eyes.

"_Part of your world"_

The young church girl then came down to the beach. Seras dove back into the sea to avoid her gaze, and the count closed his eyes to avoid the pain of direct sunlight.

Very soon the church maiden came upon him. She gasped in fright, but quickly recovered herself and ran to his side.

"Excuse me, sir," she cried, "Are you all right?!"

The count slowly adjusted his eyes to the sunlight and looked upon her. By some happy coincidence, she happened to be a beautiful young maiden with flowing blonde hair, rich dark skin and the deepest blue eyes. She looked upon him with such concern and touched his arm so tenderly with her slender fingers that he could not help but smile.

Seras hid behind tall rocks that stuck out of the water and watched to see what would happen. Most of the church maidens continued to walk and giggle along the grassy field until the church girl called them down.

Seras watched as the count regained full consciousness, and smirked insolently as the girls all gasped and fussed around him. Only the maiden that found him had any sense of dignity and propriety, and she calmly held his hand and dressed his wounds as she gave instructions to the other girls as they arranged to get him help. He continued to hold her hand, and smirked deviously when she tried to withdraw it with a frown.

Seras' smile for his well-being drooped as she saw the way he looked at the church maiden that found him. He smiled so tenderly upon this beautiful young girl, but he did not smile at Seras because he did not even know that she had saved him.

"Well, that was a fun first trip to the surface," Schrödinger grinned beside her. "We got to see the twilight, saw a ship up close, witnessed a storm und a shipwreck, saved a guy from drowning und we got to see the shore! Don't you think this was fun?"

Something about his chipper attitude renewed something in Seras.

"_I don't know when… I don't know how…  
But I know something's starting right now!"_

Seras had always been a spirited and stubborn young girl, but the light in her soul seemed to have been snuffed out following the tragedy of her childhood. Now that the tragedy passed like a storm, she could feel her old spirit return like the sun.

"_Watch and you'll see…  
Some day I'll be…  
Part of your world!"_

The waves broke around her as she sang, and Seras felt determined that one day she would see the count again.

However, when he finally disappeared into the crest of the hill, she felt very unhappy, and when they led him away to the big building she sighed wistfully and dove sadly down into the water.

She went to see Harkonnen again after night fell.

"Hello Seras, how did you enjoy your first—HOLY FISHCAKES!"

"What?!" Seras cried.

"Seras, what on earth happened to you?! You look like you got into a fight with a tiger and lost!"

Seras looked over her body and saw that it was covered with scratches, welts and scorch marks.

"AH!"

Schrödinger laughed himself a fit to die.

Overall, things were looking up, looking down.


	3. The Decision

Author's Notes: Sorry to take so long to update. I'm not sure how to believably continue, but whatever gets the story moving, right?

Disclaimer: I do not own or make money off Bram Stoker's _Dracula_, Kohta Hirano's _Hellsing_, Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid," or Disney's "The Little Mermaid."

* * *

Despite Seras' declaration that she would one day be part of the Count's world, she soon realized to her dismay that she did not know who he really was or where he truly lived. She had dropped him off on the first speck of land she had come across, but she had no idea if he remained there or not. The land was so vast and there was only so much she could see from the shore.

Many evenings and mornings she revisited the spot where she had left him. She saw the fruit in the garden ripen and come to harvest and she saw the snow on the high mountains melt away, but she did not see him. At first she remained hopeful that she might see the Count walking near the shore, or that she would overhear someone mention him. Quite often, she drifted close to the shore and covered her hair and shoulders with foam so that no one could see her little white face, and listened eagerly for any news. This always proved a fruitless effort though, as the church girls talked of trivial things.

One day, she came close to hearing something as she watched two girls walk along the white sand. One of them was the very maiden that had discovered the Count and who had led him by the hand into the church. She walked along with a book in her hand while her companion looked wistfully about.

"Oh, it has been ever so dull around here since the Count left."

"He was not here very long," the church girl said indifferently, turning a page in her book.

"Yes, but it was certainly very exciting while he was here," the girl giggled.

She looked to her companion for some reply, but the girl turned up her nose and kept reading.

"He fancied you, you know," the girl said.

Seras felt her gut clench. She remembered how the Count had smiled at the girl and dreaded to hear more.

"It was a fleeting fancy caused by the euphoric rush of joy from waking to discover he was alive," the girl said, "and I was the first girl that happened to be within sight. He only saw me for a short time and left soon after. It has been many months since he was away. I'm sure he has come to his senses and forgotten all about me."

Seras sighed with relief and then moved closer, hoping desperately that they would say more about who he was or where to find him.

The girl sighed, "Of course, it's easy for _you_ to be so indifferent…"

"What do you mean?"

"If I was lucky enough to have a handsome gentleman like that swooning over me, I would not discard the honor as though it were nothing."

The church girl seemed taken aback, and lowered her book slightly, but said nothing.

Seras followed them for a quite a ways, hoping desperately to hear anything else about it.

Eventually, the two girls wandered over the crest of the hill, and Seras was forced to accept that they would say no more on the subject, and sank sadly back into the sea. Every visit proved just as useless, so each time she came home sadder than she had left.

Seras had always been quiet and wistful, and now she slowly became even more so. The royal sisters asked her what she had seen on her first visit up to the surface, but she would not tell them a thing. She told Harkonnen and the other stage hands basic details about the ship, storm and shipwreck, but did not describe much beyond that.

"You poor fish!" Harkonnen exclaimed, "It must have been so devastating to see so many sailors drowned like that!"

"Most of them escaped into little boats above water," Seras said slowly, "I'm sure they got out just fine."

"You're sure? You mean you didn't stay to find out?!" Harkonnen cried.

"Well… no," Seras said, averting her eyes. "I was a little preoccupied…"

"Preoccupied? Doing what?!" Harkonnen cried.

"Just… things," Seras squirmed.

"Just things? Didn't you stay to help them all?"

"I… look, Harkonnen…"

"Seras, this is not like you!"

Seras blushed and looked away. Schrödinger teased her so much about being a lovesick little guppy that she could not bear to tell Baron Harkonnen and have him also think of her as nothing but a silly little girl with a crush.

"I was helping a few sailors on my own, all right? So I didn't get to see the entire group!" and she swam away.

It was her one consolation that she could now explore the surface world. Now that she was a grown-up girl that could go wherever she wanted, she abandoned her job as a sea-dredger and explored the bright ocean above. On her way to the spot where she had left the ount, she often took new routes so that she could see more of the ocean, say hello to more sea creatures, and leave at different times of day to see as much of the surface world as possible. She delighted in the clouds of silver fish that swam around her, the playful dolphins that skipped about the surface the way flounders skipped about the sand of the ocean floor, and the large graceful whales that seemed so wise and ancient. She loved feeling the warm sunlight wash over her like a golden waterfall, adored the white fluffy clouds that made such wonderful shapes far above the water, and marveled at the thousands of stars that lit up the night sky like the Count's glorious fireworks.

No longer was she trapped on the ocean floor, forced to look up at a world that seemed so vast and beautiful, without being able to explore or touch.

Seras still returned to the Sea Capital to see Harkonnen and watch royal concerts, but her heart constantly pulled her back toward land. It was as though she was being drawn toward the irresistible melody of a siren's song.

In fact, during one of Harkonnen's concerts, the youngest princess sang a song of her own invention.

_"When a mermaid comes of age, she begins a different kind of life  
Childish games are left behind, and she prepares to become a bride  
Her schooldays are in the past now, her heart becomes her new guide  
It will portal the way to love eternal"_

Seras continued to search through sunken ships to find treasures with Schrödinger, though she declined to look through the ship the Count had nearly drowned in. It felt haunted somehow, and she shuddered to think of all the unhappy humans on board who might have been lost to sea. In fact, Seras felt a little disquiet looking through all the sunken ships, with their keels split wide open and their insides covered in sand and algae. She imagined what might have happened to all the poor souls that once boarded it and whatever watery deaths they might have met; but Schrödinger told her she was being too sensitive. They saw mariners survive the storm, he said, so would it not be the same for these other sailors?

_"Wisdom only comes with time  
The road to love is paved with broken hearts  
If I am to reach my goal, I must risk everything  
In my true destiny, no matter what the price"_

During one of their last trips, before Seras stuck to her conviction of no longer wanting to visit such melancholic places, Seras and Schrödinger discovered a white marble statue that looked like a dashing prince. The figure seemed handsome and noble, tall and steadfast. He was dressed in noble clothes and held a mighty sword. While not an exact likeness to the Count, its smooth white face and noble brow reminded her of that of the Count, as she had brushed his dark hair from his cool temple. Likewise, she brushed her fingers against the brow of the statue, and then she wrapped her arms around it and fell into a melancholy that was almost luxurious. For many days and nights after, she wallowed in sorrow for the Count she missed so dearly.

Seras thought of the Count every day since the day she rescued him, and longed to see him so much it burned her heart and mind. Her soul ached to be near his again, but it had grown steadily easier over time as she occupied her mind with other things. But now, with a physical reminder of his handsome face to visit and embrace every day, it made her long to be with him all the more.

Soon, Seras found herself torn between seeing the place she had left the Count, the surface of the ocean that she so loved to explore, the sunken ship with the statue that reminded her of her beloved Count, and the Sea Capital where her friends and loved ones still resided. Seras no longer felt content where she was, but constantly felt compelled to move between the place she was and the next place she felt she should be. Over time, she grew very torn and very miserable indeed.

_"Far away I hear the call of the heart that sings a song like mine  
Its melody draws near and suddenly we're in perfect harmony  
I know it beckons to me from the land that's far above the sea  
Yet I know I must follow wherever it leads me"_

"Can't you find the Count?"

"Sorry, no can do, mein Schatzi!"

"B-but why?" Seras cried, "You're 'everywhere und nowhere,' right? A living embodiment of Schrödinger's Cat, right?"

Seras had no idea what these things were, but Schrödinger said them often enough that she felt she could convince him.

"Sorry, mein Schatzi, it's not that simple."

"Why not?!"

"For one thing, I haf no idea where he ist-"

"But you're everywhere and nowhere! Surely you can be where he is if you're everywhere?"

"Und even if I was," Schrödinger continued as though she had not interrupted, "I am obviously a creature of the sea, while he ist a creature of the land. Do you want me to fry up there in the sun, or suffocate in the air?"

"You can breathe just as well as me!" Seras said peevishly, thinking how he could hang off her shoulders for so long when they looked in on the Count's ship together, but she realized it was no good asking him further.

She thought about it and realized that even if she could convince him, and even if he could magically teleport over to where the Count was, he would be a miserable little fish lying on the floor unable to move, and the humans might be frightened to see him anyway. It would do little good.

_"Wisdom only comes with time  
The road to love is paved with broken hearts  
If I am to reach my goal, I must stake everything  
In my true destiny, no matter what the price…"_

Finally Seras couldn't take it any longer. She told her secret to Harkonnen. He did not know anything about the Count. Immediately all the other stage hands heard about it. None of them knew about the Count either. No one else knew her secret, except a few more mermaids who told no one - except their most intimate friends. One of these friends knew who the Count was. She too had seen the celebration on the ship.

"Then how come I didn't see you?" Seras exclaimed.

The girl laughed. "If we are so good at hiding from mortals, then we must be good at hiding from each other, yes?"

Seras frowned.

"All right, I watched from a distance, but you wouldn't have seen me since you swam right up to the bulwarks!"

Seras grew uncomfortable. While merpeople were not forbidden from going near humans or the land per se, contact between the sea world and the human world was forbidden. Most merpeople did not wish to interact with humans anyway since they could not stand for humans to gaze upon them and know them for what they truly were, but laws were in place just the same. Seras heard that their natural aversion to humans had something to do with their Lord Poseidon, who grew tired of human "heroes" of old slaying his sea children and so did not wish for them to meet up again… Or perhaps he was fighting with his brother Zeus, lord of the overworld, and did not wish for his children to mix with _their_ children. Who could tell with their mysterious and temperamental Sea God?

"Anyway," the girl continued, "I don't know where the Count is from or where his fiefdom is…"

"His what?" Seras asked.

"Fiefdom. It's land that lesser lords own. Like a kingdom for a king, only smaller."

"Oh."

"Anyway, I don't know where it is, but I know someone who might..."

"R-really?!" Seras cried, relieved and excited at the same time.

"Yup, you can find her on the surface," the girl grinned.

"Oh!" Seras cried, looking longingly up.

Why did the surface always seem to hold all of life's joys?

"Come, little sister!" said the stagehand.

Arm in arm, they rose from the water in a long row, right in front of where her friend resided.

As they neared the surface, Seras heard distant music that was very pleasing to the ear. As they drew closer, it became louder and prettier. Seras was enchanted by the music, and the closer they got the more lost she felt to it. The melody was so lovely that she just wanted to submerge her mind to the music the way her body was submerged in the water of the sea.

As they broke through the surface, Seras realized it was a voice they were hearing even before they saw the singer. Standing atop a little brown rock that poked out of the water in the middle of the ocean, stood a bird woman with glossy black feathers. She had long black hair that hung down to her ankles, a pale and freckled woman's face, and black feathers that covered her entire body like a gentleman's suit. Long wing feathers hung off her arms (though she still had clawed hands), and large yellow bird's feet poked out from the feathers around her ankles.

As she sang, Seras longed to swim over to her and embrace her. However, the music swelled and the siren's song came to an abrupt stop.

Seras blinked, slowly came to her senses, and then gasped when she realized she had indeed half-crawled over the rock to reach for the bird woman's feet, most likely to grovel over them. It was an embarrassing position to find herself in.

Without looking down, the siren said in her sweet pretty voice, "Und so, I have acquired new admirers."

Seras slowly pushed herself backwards into the water, mortified by what she had done.

The siren then smiled brightly and lowered her head. "Ah, there ist no need to be embarrassed, little fish! Man or woman, fish or human, my voice affects all without distinction."

Seras blinked.

She then heard laughing, and turned to see her companion out in the water. At Seras' questioning glance, the stagehand pointed to the seaweed she had stuffed in her ears.

Seras swelled with indignation. "You knew?!"

The mergirl burst out laughing. "I'm so sorry Seras, I could not resist!"

"Wha-? Bu-! How could you-?!"

The siren was happy to see the other mermaid though. "I haf not see you in so long!"

Seras' companion smiled brightly and hailed. "Likewise! It's been so long, Rip van Winkle!"

"Indeed, mein Liebling! Tell me, where haf you been? Und what brings you up here on this fine day?"

The stagehand threw an arm around the little mermaid's shoulder. "Seras Victoria here wants to know about a human that came sailing through here a few seasons ago, and who I think you might know?"

"Perhaps I might. I see every ship that sails through here. Well, tell me quickly!"

They told her about the Count, the fireworks display, the storm, the shipwreck out at sea, and Seras' rescued. They told her of how Seras had brought him to land, but did not know where he lived on it.

"Ah, the Count? Ja, I know him. He lives just a few leagues yonder, on a castle by the sea."

"Really? Can you take me to him?" Seras cried, eyes wide with hope and joy.

"Of course, you silly fish!" Rip van Winkle grinned, her hands on her knees.

Seras nearly cried for joy as she followed the siren and the stagehand to the Count's castle. At first she hopped over the water like a dolphin hopping on the side of a ship, and then she swam in a straight line under water because it was faster and easier. She gazed up at the siren that flew over the water though, and followed her like a black star in the heavens.

Seras followed them for many leagues until they brought her right in front of where they knew the Count's castle stood.

It was built of grey stone with great marble staircases, one of which led down to the sea. Magnificent Gothic domes rose above the roof, and between the pillars all around the building were marble statues that looked most lifelike. Through the open lofty windows one could see into the splendid halls, with their costly silk hangings and wine-rich tapestries, and walls covered with paintings that were delightful to behold. In the center of the main hall a large fountain played its columns of spray up to the Gothic-domed roof, through which the sun shone down through the stained glass windows and the water and upon the lovely plants that grew in big basins.

Seras swam up with caution. It was looked dark and foreboding, even in daylight, yet strangely alluring as the man she had fallen for.

Seras placed her hands upon the cold marble staircase that led into the sea and sighed contentedly, and the siren and stage hand knew they had brought her peace.

Now that Seras knew where Count Dracula lived, many an evening and many a night she spent there in the sea. She swam much closer to shore than any mermaids would dare venture, and she even went far up a narrow stream, under the splendid marble balcony that cast its long shadow over the water. Here she used to sit and watch the Count when he thought himself quite alone in the bright moonlight.

"What a beautiful night," he would murmur, gazing up at the full moon. "Nights like these make me want a bit to drink. Yes… such a nice, quiet night."

Seras would swoon over the baritone of his lovely voice, and long to join him so that they might admire the night together.

Many a night she would lean her cheek against her arm and look up at him fondly, with the moon and stars shining in her eyes, and watch him sip deep red wine as he too looked up at the night sky. He never looked quite as glorious as when he was bathed in silver white moonlight, and he seemed to believe there was no lovelier sight in the world. Seras soon grew to love the full moon and stars because he loved them so.

Schrödinger often tagged along and had choice words.

"I thought you liked the sunlight more than anything," Schrödinger said.

"Well, now I like the moon too!" Seras snapped.

On many evenings she saw him look out from his balcony or sail out in his fine boat, with music playing and flags a-flutter. She would peep out through the green rushes, and if the wind blew her long golden hair, which she was beginning to grow out because she wanted to look her best for the Count (even if he could not see her), anyone who saw it thought it a strange sight.

She nearly got caught only once, and it was when the strange one-eyed human was walking by. He was out for a morning hunt with one of his dogs, and when it caught her scent it ran over to her. Seras was afraid of dogs and so hid deeper into the bushes. The one-eyed human, thinking the dog had found some quarry, had approached the bush with what the siren called a gun, and pulled back the branches. Seras then splashed him in the face and kicked up such a torrent that neither the human nor the dog could see as she plowed through the roots and delved deep in the heart of the river. By the time the human managed to wipe the water from his one good eye, she was crouched at the river floor and waited eagerly for him to leave.

On many nights she saw the one-eyed human come out to sea with his crew of fishermen. They talked of many things, though mostly about women, drink, paychecks, and the bosses that gave it. She learned that they had lost their ship out on the night of the storm and could not afford to buy a new one, and so made due working in the service of the Count. With his money they rented a ship that they used to sail him about and catch fish for his meals, and worked as guards in his castle the rest of the time. She often heard them tell about the Count, and each time they had their complaints, but ultimately agreed on how fair he was. This made her proud to think that it was she who had saved his life when he was buffeted about, half dead among the waves. And she thought of how softly his head had rested on her breast, and how tenderly she had kissed him, though he knew nothing of all this nor could he even dream of it.

Increasingly she grew to like human beings, however scruffy and hang-dog those that worked near the sea were, and more and more she longed to live among them. Their world seemed so much vaster and brighter than hers. They could skim over the sea in ships, and mount up into the lofty peaks high over the clouds, and their lands stretched out in woods and fields farther than the eye could. All within reach of the sun's light. All within sight of the moon and stars. There was so much she wanted to know. The royal sisters could not answer all her questions, so she asked the siren who knew about the "upper world," which was what she said was the right name for the countries above the sea.

The siren answered all of her questions admirably, and even added many details that Seras never would have thought to ask.

"If men aren't drowned," the little mermaid asked, "do they live on forever? Don't they die, as we do down here in the sea?"

"Of course," the siren said, "all living beings must die, though human lifetimes are even shorter than yours."

"How much shorter?"

"You can live to be three hundred years old, but when you perish you turn into foam on the waves, and don't even make graves to mark your dear ones."

Seras thought briefly of her parents, and how they had disappeared in blood and darkness, and how she had nothing to remember them by except the memory in her heart.

"From the sea you are drawn, and to the sea you return." The siren said, "It is quite the same with human beings on the earth. 'Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,' as the humans say. From the earth they are drawn, and to the earth they return."

"How strange. Is that why their lives are shorter?"

"Perhaps. Who can say? Their lives are certainly much harder. Once their lives are spent, after only a few decades, they have a soul which lives forever, long after their bodies have turned to dust. It rises through thin air, up to the shining stars. Just as you rise through the water to see fathoms below, and I over the water to see the lands on earth, so men rise up to beautiful places unknown, which we shall never see."

"Why weren't we given immortal souls?" the little mermaid asked sadly.

"Oh, we are. You need not worry about that," the siren smirked. "All living beings with goodness in their hearts possess a soul. I can guarantee you that."

"But you said humans rise above the world when they die."

"They do. It is their lot."

"But then why don't we…?"

"Oh, because you are not a child of the earth, you are a daughter of the sea. The place you go after you leave this world is quite is different from those on land. Same with me and other daughters of the air. Same with all from different lots in life."

"Then I will go a different place than the Count when I die?" the little mermaid asked sadly, her heart breaking.

"You will die many hundreds of years after him, so I think where you go after should be the least of your worries."

"Well, I would gladly give up my three hundred years if I could be a human being only for a day, and later share in that heavenly realm with the Count."

"You must not think about that," said the siren. "You fare much more happily and are much better off than the folk up there."

"Says you!" the little mermaid cried. "I've always hated it down there at the bottom of the sea!"

"Bite your tongue, you don't know what's in store for you on land!" the siren said peevishly.

"Then I must also die alone and float as foam upon the dark sea, just as my dear mother and father after they met their end…" Seras felt as though her skin were about to crawl, and brushed the sea foam off her arms, "not hearing the music of the birds, nor seeing the beautiful flowers or the golden sun!"

"Now, let's not be dramatic," the siren said, "You will see many wonderful things after you die, and I and the Count and all others once the world has come to a rest and the sea has dried up and the mountains turned to dust in the wind. There's a lot to rejoice over, so you need not burden yourself with such unhappy thoughts."

"But is there any way I could go where the Count goes, and be with him forever?"

"Nein!" the siren grinned, "Not unless he loved you so much that you meant more to him than his own life. If his every thought and his whole heart cleaved to you so that he would let a priest join his right hand to yours and would promise to be faithful here and throughout all eternity, then his soul would pour into yours, and you would share in mankind's afterlife."

Seras smiled on hearing this.

"But that can never come to pass!" Schrödinger piped in, "The very thing that is your greatest beauty here in the sea would be considered ugly on land."

"Really? What?" Seras cried in surprise.

"Take a guess!" Schrödinger smirked.

"My hair?" She thought of the long tresses being a mermaid's pride and joy.

"No, kummkompf! Your tail!"

"O-oh! Of course!" Seras blushed.

"They have such poor taste that to be thought beautiful there you have to have two awkward props which they call 'legs.'"

The little mermaid sighed and looked wryly at her fish tail.

"Come, let us be gay!" the siren exclaimed happily, and twirled around with her feathers a glimmer. "Let us leap und bound und sing throughout the years that we have to live! Surely that is time to spare, und you with three hundred, and afterwards you shall be glad enough to rest in your graves."

"She's right, you know," Schrödinger said. "The human world? It's a mess. Life under the sea is better than anything they have up there!"

"But I still don't think…" Seras began.

"The seaweed is always greener…" Schrödinger began.

Seras knocked him on the head. "Don't you start!"

The siren stood and stretched her long bird legs. "Well, you two haf fun! I shall go sing to a ship passing by!"

"Don't drown anyone!" Seras called after her.

Later that night, down in their little grotto, Seras was lying against a rock and looking at a small silver fork. As she looked at it, she could not help but think how much prettier silver would look on the Count than gold.

"You've changed, Seras," Schrödinger said.

"Have I?"

"Yes, you used to be fun. Now all you care about is that stupid Count."

"For the better, I hope," Seras said, and placed the fork on the candle holder.

"You aren't even listening to me!" Schrödinger exclaimed.

"Why should I? All you ever do is make fun of me!"

"That's because you're so fun to make fun of!"

"Good bye, Schrödinger," Seras said firmly, and swam out of the grotto.

On her way out, she bumped into the youngest princess, who was coming in with yet more treasures she had uncovered from sunken ships. Several months ago, the youngest princess had happened upon Seras' grotto and begged to keep her stuff in there. Evidently she loved the surface as much as Seras, but had long run out of room to keep her "collection" in her royal bedchamber, and so wanted to keep all of her things in Seras' spacious underwater cave. Seras had hesitantly agreed, and by nightfall her home was full to bursting with the youngest princess's collection. Now the youngest princess was there so often and made herself so at home, one would think the grotto were hers and not Seras' home.

Seras was more melancholic than ever, and eventually drifted back to the surface.

"What would you like to know now?" the siren asked when Seras returned.

"I suppose I'll just keep learning more about the human world," Seras said.

"Ooh, would you like to hear of marriage ceremonies between humans? It really is quite charming!"

Seras' eyes lit up and she smiled brightly. "All right."

The siren told her proudly of the commitment humans made to each other when they pledged their hearts and souls to each other. As she told of the charming ceremony when a priest had the man and woman pledge their right hands together, Seras soon realized that the way she had talked about for humans to bind their souls together.

"Do you think I could marry the Count, and be able to join him in the afterlife?" Seras cried.

"I don't see why not!" the siren grinned, "If you too could live together as husband und wife, there's no reason you can't live together after death."

"Live together…"

All at once, Seras' prior melancholy had returned. Schrödinger often liked to taunt her by saying: "A fish may love a bird, but where would they live?"

"In the balcony that connects to the river, perhaps…" Seras thought, but even she knew it was not likely. She could not stand for humans to look at her, so how could she live with him like a proper husband and wife?

These thoughts continued to plague Seras even after she returned to visit Harkonnen.

"Seras, you seem so down lately!" he said.

"Really? I don't mean to…"

"It's all because of that cursed count! You were so bright and lively before you saw him!"

"Please don't say that about him, Harkonnen. I really am much happier now than I was before."

"And you were always a terrible liar!" Harkonnen cried, with his forked tongue sticking out.

Seras made a wry face, but said nothing.

"Now Seras, cheer up! Now is not the time to be making unhappy faces! Great joy draws our way!"

Seras perked her head up.

"Their royal majesties, the Sea King und Dowager Queen, are holding a court ball this evening."

"O-oh…" Seras said sadly.

She still remembered how she had been fired as a chamber maid, and forbidden from performing at royal functions of any kind, and felt all the sadder.

"What are you frowning about? The doors are open to all that will come, including you!"

Seras' eyes widened, and then she smiled. "Oh—all right!"

"You simply must come, for tonight I shall conduct music for the grandest ball ever held on the sea floor! Tonight will be the most glorious music of my distinguished career."

Seras chuckled and shook her head. Harkonnen always said that, but she agreed to go just the same.

The party was thought to be a much more glorious affair than is ever to be seen on earth. The walls and ceiling of the great ballroom were of chrystal glass. Many hundreds of huge rose-red and grass-green shells stood on each side in rows, with purple and blue lights illuminating the whole room and shining so clearly it was quite bright in the sea outside. You could see countless fish, great and small, swimming toward the glass walls. Their scales gleamed every color of the rainbow, though many were of purplish-red, others of silver and gold.

All the fish were quivering with excitement over, and all the merpeople were chattering happily as they fixed their hair before their vanities.

While the mermaids prepared for the ball and Seras swam toward the Sea Capital, Schrödinger whispered that he had a surprise for her and he pulled her instead toward their secret hideaway. After pulling back the heavy stone door, he led Seras eagerly through the stone passage.

"Schrödinger!" Seras called happily, "Why can't you tell me what this about?"

"You'll see!" he cried, covering her eyes and pushing her forward. "It's a surprise!"

Thus saying, he released her eyes and allowed her to see the white marble statue that looked so much like the Count. It stood in the center of the cave, with most of their human treasures arranged decoratively around it.

Seras gasped.

"You like it?" Schrödinger smirked.

"You did this?" she breathed.

"Ja! When you can be everywhere und nowhere like me, moving a statue like this is easy!"

"You mean… it's here…?"

"Ja! Everything you love ist here, every_one_ you love ist there," he pointed behind him, where they both knew the Sea Capitol stood just outside their grotto, "und everything you want ist up there. You won't haf to swim around so much anymore, as everything you want ist in your home, your friends are just outside your home, und you can go to the surface with all you want securely in place."

"Oh…! Schrödinger, you're the best!" Seras exclaimed, and she hugged him and spun him around.

"I knew you'd like it!" he said.

"It looks just like him! It even has his eyes!"

"Ja, dead und hollow."

"Schrödinger!"

"What? I got this for you, didn't I?"

"Well, I don't care, I'll just run away with him," Seras grinned.

"You haf no legs."

"Well, that won't last long, will it, my love?" Seras giggled, addressing the statue.

"Und now you've lost it," Schrödinger said.

"Why, Count Dracula, come to live with you? I don't know, this is all… so sudden."

Seras giggled and spun around, happier than she had been in many months.

When she noticed someone hovering near her entrance, she stopped and gasped.

"Your Majesty?!"

The Sea King was indeed hovering in the shadows. He was glaring menacingly, and the entire cave seemed instantly colder for it.

"Gutten Tag, mein Sea King. What brings you to our humble grotto?" Schrödinger grinned.

"Save it, Sea Devil," he growled.

Before Seras could speak, she noticed the youngest sea princess behind him.

"What did you do?!" she cried.

The Sea King then spoke in a voice that was all daggers.

"I consider myself a reasonable monarch." He then swam closer. "I set certain rules. And I expect those rules to be obeyed."

"Your Majesty, I…"

"Is it true you rescued a human from drowning?"

She bit her lip. "Your Majesty, I had to…"

"And is it true you set him down on a crowded beach?"

"Your Majesty, I didn't realize…"

"And is it true, you have returned to the land every day since that day?"

"Your Majesty, if you would just let me explain…"

"AND IS IT TRUE you swam up to the shore, up the river, into the brush by the river's edge, onto a human lord's balcony, while humans are in sight, every day for the last year?!"

"Your daughters do it all the time!" Seras cried.

She had heard so many countless stories from the royal daughters, telling of how close they had swum to ships and houses, how they saw children play and dogs bark, that she assumed this was just fine.

"You foolish little urchin," the Sea King shouted in a voice like thunder, "Contact between the human world and the merworld is strictly forbidden. Seras Victoria, you know that! Everyone knows that!"

"I've been careful not to be seen!" Seras cried.

"And now as a result of your careless behavior, humans now talk of seeing a mermaid near the human lord's palace!"

Seras felt the blood drain from her face. She searched her memory for any way that could be so and but couldn't—the one-eyed human. The one that almost always seemed to catch her.

"Can you account for this oversight?" the Sea King demanded.

Seras winced and felt her tail grow weak, and slowly sank.

"I've been so careful," she said weakly.

"And now, because of your foolishness," the Sea King continued, "Humans are beginning to know of our existence for the first time in centuries! My daughters now think it acceptable to swim up to human abodes..."

"What?!" Seras cried indignantly. "They did that long before me!"

"HOW DARE YOU lie to your royal majesty…"

"Why don't you ask them!" Seras snapped.

"ASK THEM? I don't need to ask them! I know my daughters perfectly well! They are good girls. Well-behaved, well-bred, well-mannered. Not violent, temperamental, uncivilized, uncouth little urchins, incapable of even the barest…"

"Your Majesty, that's enough!" Seras screamed.

The Sea King was stunned. "You dare speak to me that way…"

"Your Majesty, I have done everything I was supposed to and more…"

"You used your position as a royal chamber maid to impersonate royalty!"

"Your Majesty, I had to…"

"Daddy…"

"You stay out of this!" he thundered.

"I was just trying to save the show…" Seras said.

"So help me, Seras Victoria, you have been nothing but trouble since day one. I should have thrown you out of the palace after your first outburst, and if this is the way you repay my kindness…"

"What kindness?!" Seras finally shouted. "You worked me like a slave and then blamed me for all of your daughters' misconduct?! Every meal they didn't show up, every show they missed, you always blamed me and said I…"

"THAT IS ENOUGH!" the Sea King thundered so loudly the entire grotto shook.

Seras continued to glare defiantly, but also flicked her eyes around apprehensively.

"Seras Victoria, you are **banished** from the Sea Capitol. I never want to see you within those waters again. And if I ever catch you trying to consort with my daughters or Harkonnen again…"

"There's nothing you can do to stop me!" Seras screamed before she could stop herself.

"Seras!" the youngest princess cried.

The Sea King's eyes widened.

"Did I hear you correctly?" the Sea King said in a voice like death.

However, Seras set her face in the same determined scowl she wore in her childhood. "He's my friend," she said.

"Have you lost your senses completely? I am your king! You are my subject!"

"I'm aware." Seras glared.

"So help me Seras Victoria," the Sea King said in his most terrifying voice; so much that even Seras' resolve melted and she hid behind her statue, "I am going to get through to you! You will stay away from the royal palace, and you will stay away from Harkonnen. You will stay away from the surface, and you will stay away from humans. You will no longer corrupt my daughters with your insolence. And if you disobey…" His trident glowed a deep red. "So be it."

So saying, he took his trident and aimed it at her treasures. What happened next was a nightmare Seras had not experienced since the night her parents were destroyed.

"Your Majesty…!" she cried, as the first blast destroyed treasures on her wall.

"Daddy, no!"

Water, dark and red. The deep red of the trident mixed with the shadows of the cave.

"Your Majesty, please!"

Pointed fangs, destroying everything she loved.

"Your Majesty, stop!"

The power of the trident blasting her treasures just as teeth tore apart her mother's flesh.

"YOUR MAJESTY, STOP IT!"

Her home, her love, her treasures. Everything she loved destroyed before her very eyes. The ocean taking everything she loved, torn apart in water dark and red.

She saw the Sea King aiming his trident at the statue of the man she loved.

"Your Majesty, NO!"

The statue filled with glowing cracks, and then exploded into dust.

Seras was overcome with rage and grief that she had long thought behind her. She covered her face with her hands and broke down in violent sobs.

After a respectful pause, the Sea King murmured "I expect you out of here before nightfall," and swam away.

After a long bout of sobbing, Seras realized the youngest princess was still there. Rage bubbled over her sadness. "You-! Get out of here!" She screamed with rage and thrashed the princess with a rock.

She didn't notice or care how the princess reacted. She just knew her home was destroyed. Her treasures destroyed. Everything she loved was gone—and for what? What did she do? Why did the ocean do this to her? Why did it tear apart what she loved? Her dad, her mum, her home, her stuff, her…

"I HATE THE OCEAN!" Seras screeched, and started tearing into a rage. "I HATE IT! Why does it—why does it do this to me…?"

She broke down sobbing again.

In the midst of her sorrow, she heard the vague hissing of eels. Seras looked up to find the same kind of eels that found her after her parents died. The same kind that comforted her and led her to her new home after it seemed like everything was lost. Suddenly, she felt like a child again, crying alone and feeling soft eels brushing their slippery flesh against her arms to comfort her. She slowly ceased her sobbing, just like when she was a little girl, and settled into a weak bout of whimpering.

"Poor child…" they hissed.

"Poor sweet child…"

"She has a very serious problem…"

"As long as she lives under the Sea King's rule…"

"She will always be under his unfair rules…"

"If only there was something we could do."

"But there is something…"

"…W-what?" she whispered.

"Zorin Blitz has great power…"

"The Sea Witch?!"

Seras had heard of her. A horrible sea monster that lived in a palace of bones from ship wrecks and—

"No! Get out of here! Leave me alone!" Seras cried.

"Suit yourself," they said, "We only thought you might want to see your love again."

However, on their way out, they flicked the face of the statue over to her. It looked nothing like the Count… but it was all she had. She lost everything in the sea. She had nothing to look forward to but darkness and loneliness and a long miserable life followed by a lonely death. Up there in the surface, above darkness and suffering and tyranny, above the Sea King's unjust laws, above her friends that she loved but could never see again, above...

As she looked on it, she vaguely remembered the lyrics from Harkonnen's concert.

_Far away I hear the call of the heart that sings a song like mine...  
I know it beckons to me from the land above the sea  
Yet I know I must follow wherever it leads me..._

_The road to love is paved with broken hearts_  
_If I am to reach my goal, I must stake everything_  
_No matter what the price…_

"Wait!"

"Yesssssss?"

* * *

I'm sorry if the last part was a bit melodramatic. I just wanted a catalyst that compels Seras to seek out the Sea Witch, not just love sickness that makes her up and say "You know what? Screw my friends, my home, my life, my identity! I'm going to give up my fins and my world for a man I don't even know!" I figure if she doesn't have much to live for down here, it softens the blow of her being willing to pursue the love of a stranger.


	4. The Sea Witch

Author's Notes: This has been my favorite chapter to write, which means I know it'll be your least favorite to read. Seems to be the way it always goes. Although, the main reason it took me years to write this crossover was because the Sea Witch from the original story cut out the little mermaid's tongue and gave her a draught that made every step feel like she was walking on knives, while Ursula used magic to extract Ariel's voice and turn her human for only three days. Since Zorin has both a scythe and tattoo magic, I couldn't decide which method to choose. Then the answer came quite suddenly. I hope you like the outcome.

Disclaimer: I do not own Hans Christian Andersen's or Disney's "The Little Mermaid," nor Kohta Hirano's Hellsing. Borrowing heavily from the original text though.

* * *

As the eels led her out of the little grotto, Seras took one last look at the Sea Capitol. The royal ball was now underway, with the many shells shining their many colored light and the many-colored fish filling the glass halls. Across the floor of the hall ran a wide stream of water, in which the mermaids and mermen danced to their own entrancing songs. Such beautiful voices could never be heard among the people on land. The youngest princess sang more sweetly than anyone else, and everyone applauded her.

For a moment her heart was happy, because she knew Harkonnen created the most beautiful music in all the sea and would feel quite proud of it. But her thoughts soon strayed to her little grotto and she felt deep sorrow. Dark waters filled with shattered possessions… was that to be the only kind of life she would could lead? Seras looked at the bright lights and the dancing, smiling, singing merfolk. Filled with friends she loved but would never be allowed to see again. Such happiness would be forever denied as long as she stayed below the sea, and she had a new joy to pursue in the world above… come what may.

The little mermaid set out from the royal gardens toward the whirlpools that raged in front of the witch's dwelling. She had never gone that way before. No flowers grew there, nor any seaweed. Bare and gray, the sands extended to the whirlpools, where like roaring mill wheels the waters whirled and snatched everything within their reach down to the bottom of the sea. Between these tumultuous whirlpools the eels had to thread their way to reach the witch's waters. Seras followed hesitantly behind, and it was all she could do to keep up as then for a long stretch the only trail laid through hot seething mire, which the eels called the witch's peat marsh.

Beyond it the Sea Witch's hut lay in the middle of a wretched forest, where all the trees and shrubs were polyps, half animal and half plant. They looked like hundred-headed snakes growing out of the soil. All their branches were long, slimy arms, with fingers like wriggling worms. They squirmed, joint by joint, from their roots to their outermost tentacles, and whatever they could lay hold of they twined around and never let go.

Seras was terrified, and stopped at the edge of the forest. Her heart pounded with fear and she nearly turned back.

"This way," the eels hissed.

Seras gulped and summoned her courage. She bound her long locks around her neck so the polyps could not catch hold of them, folded her arms across her large breasts and darted through the water like a fish. The eels slid easily among the slimy polyps that stretched their writhing arms and fingers to seize them. Seras moved much more slowly, and soon her eyes widened with horror at what she saw. Every one of the polyps held something it had caught with its hundreds of little tentacles, and to which they clung like starfish to hapless mussels. The white bones of men that had perished at sea and sunk to these dark depths were now snared in the polyps' arms. Ships' rudders, seamen's chests, and the skeletons of sea animals had also fallen into their clutches, but the most ghastly sight of all was a little mermaid they had caught and strangled.

In her fear, Seras did not notice her hair come loose until one of the polyps latched onto it. Seras gasped, but then another polyp latched onto another handful. Seras screamed and twisted, but no matter how much she wiggled or writhed, the polyps would not let go.

Just when she felt sure she would join the little mermaid they had killed, a sharp blade cut off her hair. Seras curled into a protective ball, and then looked up to see a scythe spinning through the water like a boomerang. It arched through the water and came back for her. Seras ducked, and then felt it cut off the last of her hair as it spun back into the witch's lair. The polyps then wrapped their tentacles around her golden locks, and then retracted so they could devour their prize. Seras ran her hands hurriedly over her head, feeling her hair as short as it was before she started growing it, and free of grabbing fingers.

When she was sure she was free of the polyps, Seras sighed with relief.

"Come in," a deep, grating, gravelly voice called from inside. "Come in, my child."

Seras reached a large muddy clearing in the forest, where big fat water snakes slithered about, showing their foul yellowish teeth. In the middle of this clearing stood a house built of the bones of shipwrecked men, and there sat the sea witch, letting the eels eat out of her hands just as we might feed birds.

"We mustn't lurk in doorways," she continued with a sneer. "It's rude."

The sea witch then reached out a large hand and easily caught the spinning scythe. "One might question your upbringing."

The Sea Witch then placed her scythe by her own door of skeleton human hands. She truly was a fearsome sight to behold. She was very tall, muscular, masculine woman with grey leathery skin and short, spiky orange hair. One could mistake her for a male from behind. She had narrow green eyes, but one was a lazy eye that drooped slightly. Perhaps her most remarkable features were the tattoos that covered the entire right side of her body, with a pentagram on her forehead, a purple spiral on her right shoulder, and innumerable letters and symbols all over the right side of her face, neck, and arm. She was not one of the merfolk though, but a cecaeli; a creature with the upper body of a woman and the lower body of an octopus. Her ink-black octopus skin began under her arms instead of her waist though, so she was a tall, imposing monster with a grey woman's head, neck, arms and torso shape over eight long, black tentacles.

She called the ugly water snakes her little chickabiddies, and let them crawl and sprawl about on her bulky, conical bosom.

"Staring is rude too," she cackled.

Seras gasped and averted her eyes.

"What? No apology? One would never guess you were raised in the Sea King's Palace, by the way you behave." At this, the witch gave such a loud cackling laugh that the toad and the snakes were shaken to the ground, where they lay writhing.

"Now," the sea which said, and slung her scythe back over her shoulder, "I understand you are here because you wish to escape the Sea King's palace and rise above to the surface so you can live in the castle of some... human lord. Of course, the only way to get what you want ist to become a human yourself."

Seras gasped. "Can you do that?"

Zorin Blitz smirked maliciously.

"My dear, **sweet** child," she said in a voice as thick and sugary as syrup, "That's what I do. It's what I **live** for: to help unfortunate merfolk like yourself." She trailed a tentacle across Seras' face, who then flinched away, "_Poor souls_ with no one else to turn to..."

Her thick, syrupy voice was dripping with sarcasm that even Seras could catch.

"I admit that in the past I've been a nasty," she continued, "They weren't kidding when they called me... well, a witch." She smirked wickedly, and the eels chuckled. "But you'll find that nowadays, I've mended all my ways. Repented, seen the light, and made a switch…

"True? Yes!" she sneered right in Seras' face.

Seras winced and moved her head back.

"Und I fortunately know a little _magic_. It's a talent that I always haf possessed. Und, dear young lady, please don't laugh. I use it on behalf of the miserable, the lonely, and depressed!"

To the eels, she sneered, "Pathetic!"

They chuckled wickedly.

"Poor unfortunate souls! In pain, in need!" Zorin continued sarcastically. With a wave of her hand, she summoned two misty images of merfolk: a droopy looking male and an overweight female. "This one longing to be thinner, that one wants to get the girl, und do I help them?" She snapped her fingers, and they instantly became slim and attractive. "Yes, indeed. Those poor unfortunate souls! So sad, so true. They come flocking to my cauldron, crying, 'Spells, Zorin, please!' Und do I help them?! Yes I do. Now it's happened once or twice, someone couldn't pay the price, und I'm afraid I had to rake 'em 'cross the gills."

So saying, she took her mighty scythe and slashed the misty little merpeople, and when the mist settled they became little polyps like the ones outside her door, before they had grown into hundred-headed trees with hundreds of writhing tentacles.

"Yes, I've had the odd complaint, but on the whole I've been a saint... to those poor unfortunate souls!" she bellowed, shimmying toward the polyp garden. They all trembled and shrank back from her shadow.

Seras stared back in horror. The creatures that had tried to kill her, were they simply crying for help?

"Now, I know exactly what you want," Zorin murmured huskily in Seras' ear, while at the same time draping a tentacle around her shoulder. Seras flinched and squirmed within her grasp, appropriately like a fish caught in an octopus's tentacle, but Zorin ignored her and kept talking. "You want to escape the Sea King's rule und rise up out of the water so that you may live with your… your count fellow in the world above. In order to do that, you must get rid of your fish's tail und haf two props instead, so you can walk the land as a human creature, und that count may fall in love with you."

At this, Zorin gave such a sadistic chuckle that it made Seras' skin crawl.

"It ist very foolish of you," Zorin sneered, "but just the same you shall haf your way, for it will bring you to grief, which will bring me great pleasure."

Seras opened her mouth in protest.

"Now, here's the deal," Zorin interrupted, "I shall concoct a potion that will cause your tail to divide und shrink until it becomes what humans call a 'pair of shapely legs.' But it will hurt; it will feel as if thousands of sharp little blades slashed through you."

Seras' eyes widened, and then spied the scythe on Zorin's shoulder.

"Should you overcome the pain, everyone who sees you will say that you are the most graceful human being they have ever laid eyes on, for you will keep your gliding fishy movements that no dancer will be able to match. But every step you take will feel like treading upon blades so sharp that blood will flow. Are you willing to suffer all this?"

"W-what?" Seras asked in a trembling voice.

"Oh, und I forgot to mention that if you do not win the love of the count so completely that for your sake he forgets everything, cleaves to you with his every thought and his whole heart, und lets the priest join your hands in marriage, then you will win no happy end. If he marries another, the tiny little knives that you feel when you drink the potion und when you walk the land shall travel to your heart the very next morning, und you will die at sunrise! That's right, you will become foam! Foam on the waves!"

The Sea Witch then gave such a bellowing laugh that the very polyp forest shrank from her.

"Shall you take that risk?" Zorin asked.

"Y-you can't be serious!" Seras cried, as she turned pale as death.

"Of course, all of this comes with a price," said the Sea Witch, "and it is no trifling price that I ask. You have the sweetest voice of anyone down here at the bottom of the sea—don't be modest; we both know it to be true. Und while I don't doubt that you would like to captivate the count with it—especially now that your lovely, flowing locks are gone…" The Sea Witch paused to cackle sadistically. Seras ran her hand over her short hair, and felt deep melancholy. "Nein, you must give this voice to me. I will take the very best thing that you haf, in return for my sovereign draught. I must pour my own blood in it to make the drink as sharp as a two-edged scythe."

"B-but why does it need to be sharp?!" Seras cried, and she felt herself shake with dread.

"Well, have you lost your courage? Stick out your little tongue und I shall cut it off," Zorin leered, her scythe poised at the ready, and her face so covered with shadows that only her toothy leer and her glowing lazy eye could be seen. "I shall haf my price, und you shall haf the potent draught."

Seras gasped and shrank from the scythe.

"Y-you can't be serious!" Seras cried, and flung her hands over her mouth.

"Well, excuse me, little princess!" Zorin sneered, "I thought you wanted the count."

"I-I do!" Seras croaked.

"Well then, I guess you don't want him that much," the Sea Witch shrugged as though it were a trifling matter, barely worth her time, and moved on.

"N-no! I do! Please! Let me think!"

"Thinking is for the indecisive," Zorin frowned, "If you truly wanted the Count more than anything, you would not even need to think of what you must do before you go to do it. You would dive into the leviathan's jaws without even giving it a second thought. I guess if you value your tongue and health over him, he does not mean that much to you."

"P-please!" Seras cried, "I… I also want to live on the surface! And… and I can't do that if every step feels like I'm being ripped into by sharks!"

"Well, that ist quite the vivid description," Zorin sneered. "I should use that in the future. But that ist still not your choice to make. 'Beggars can't be choosers,' und you must be the most _pathetic_ little beggar I ever did see. Unless you truly want the Count, you waste your time und mine."

"Please!" Seras cried, "There must be another way!"

"Not for you, there isn't," Zorin sneered, and she disappeared inside her hut.

Seras was left floating there. She was numb with shock and denial. The Sea Witch said no. Her last chance for happiness and the Sea Witch said no. Seras slowly sank to the muddy barren ground, and felt another bout of sobbing come up. Would anything ever go right for her?

"Now, what are you crying about?"

Seras gasped and looked up. "Schrödinger?!"

"The one und only," he grinned, his hands tucked behind his head. "Now, what ist bothering you?"

She wrapped her arms around Schrödinger without even thinking. "She said no! I came all this way to see Zorin Blitz, and she turned me away!"

"And you're just going to take no for an answer?"

"What…? B… but what else can I do?"

"Look, if you want to sit here und cry, you may. But the little mermaid _I_ know does not give up so easily."

Seras gasped and widened her eyes.

Schrödinger smirked insolently. "Why do you think I follow you around everywhere?"

Seras again widened her eyes in surprise, then they melted into a pleased smile.

"Go on! Ask her!" he said.

Seras took a deep breath, and approached the Sea Witch's hut.

"Why are you still here? I thought I told you to scram!" Zorin called from her window.

"Please, there must be another way!"

"There isn't!" Zorin called, but her voice lacked the sharp edge it had before.

Seras must have noticed it too, for she continued just as passionately, "Please, I watched my parents get eaten alive by creatures of the deep! My mum, she… One reason I want to go to the surface is to escape the darkness of the deep that reminds me of their deaths every day, and… and I can't do that if every step feels like I'm being eaten alive by the very monsters that devoured them! Please! I want to live on the surface, happy and free! As much as I want to live with the Count. There must be some other way that doesn't involve being cut open with sharp teeth!"

Zorin smirked in amusement. "Well, if you are truly desperate, there ist one other way..."

"Name it!" Seras cried.

Zorin Blitz smirked. "There are other types of magic I might be able to use…"

"Use it!" Seras said with conviction. "Anything but the draught that cuts."

Zorin Blitz laughed. "Well, aren't you a tough little wench? Very well, if you truly are determined, I might be able to whip up one other kind of spell. You shall still get your draught that gives you legs, and I shall still get your voice—yes, even that—but there ist a different method that does not involve my blood or your tongue."

So saying, she flexed her tattooed hand, and a giant purple eye opened.

Seras gasped and flinched back.

"Scared already? You shouldn't be. It won't hurt as much as the draught that cuts like knives. In fact, it won't hurt at all. I shall use a special, ancient magic with long-forgotten incantations that will make the potion thick as ooze, und it shall feel as thick und sloppy as the soft mud of the sea floor running through your veins. It will hurt, I will not lie, but not as bad as the knife, und it will be quick und passing. Once you become human, the transformation will be complete, und you will never feel the effects of the potion again."

Seras sighed with relief.

"… Until you turn back into a mermaid," the Sea Witch said.

"What?!"

"Oh, did I mention your life on land would still end if the Count chooses another? Silly me. If the count marries you, you shall remain human permanently, in this life und the next. But, if he chooses another, you'll turn back into a mermaid und… You'll belong _to __**me**_!" Zorin Blitz murmured so huskily that Seras instinctively covered her breasts and flinched away.

Seras had no idea why Zorin Blitz would want to keep her as a slave, but the way she kept touching her and leering over her made her very uncomfortable indeed. The fact that she was so cruel and sadistic and seemed to enjoy bringing pain to even her 'little chickabiddies' did not help at all.

"Have we got a deal?" she grinned.

"… If I become your slave, what will you do with me?" Seras asked.

"What indeed?" the Sea Witch said with frightful sarcasm. "You're a pretty catch, why don't you figure it out?"

"Come on, Seras, even you can't be that stupid!" Schrödinger cried.

Seras wrapped her arms around herself with shame and embarrassment.

"Now, there is one more thing. We still must discuss the subject of payment!"

"But I can't give my…" Seras began, her hands instantly flying over her mouth.

Zorin then slapped her hands with a tentacle. "I'm not asking for that. You need not cover your pretty little mouth with your white little hands. What I'm asking cannot be extracted with any blade... though I haf tried," she grinned wickedly. "Nein, it's not your little pink tongue. It's just a token really, a trifle! You'll never even miss it. What I want from you is... **_your voice_**."

"… My voice?" Seras murmured, her fingers resting delicately on her neck.

"You've got it, sweet cheeks," Zorin said, "You'll have a more absolute draught, und so a more absolute payment. When it was just your tongue, there would still be a way to use your so pretty voice with wordless songs, for it rests in the throat where the tongue rests in the mouth. But now, since I am using absolute magic to make you an absolute human, you shall give your absolute voice. Since I'll extend my magic to give you human form, I demand you extend your voice for me to listen to whenever I want… should you fail to return the whole package," she leered.

"But if you take my voice," said the little mermaid, "what will be left to me?"

"You'll have your looks!" Zorin exclaimed, gesturing toward her body, "Your pretty face!"

Zorin then sauntered away, her hand on her hips. "Und don't underestimate the importance of **BODY LANGUAGE!**" she leered maniacally, thrusting her hips suggestively. "HA! The men up there don't like a lot of blather... They think a girl who gossips is a bore! Yes, on land it's much preferred for ladies not to say a word! Und after all, dear, what is idle prattle for?"

So saying, she threw her caldron on a small lava pit, to brew the draught.

"Come on! They're not all that impressed with conversation! True gentlemen avoid it when they can!"

As she talked, the Sea Witch constantly threw new ingredients into the caldron till it started to boil with the sound of a crocodile shedding tears.

"But they dote und swoon und fawn on a lady who's withdrawn! It's she who holds her tongue who gets her man!"

So saying, the Sea Witch extracted a large whale's tongue and threw it into the cauldron, so that it boiled and boomed.

Seras flinched away from the steam and explosions.

"COME ON! You poor unfortunate soul! Go ahead! Make your choice!"

Zorin Blitz was getting riled up with maniac energy. Where before she merely leered and cackled with sadistic amusement, now she was screaming and laughing and gesturing with all of her might.

Zorin then held out a scythe in one hand and an arm full of tattoos and an eye on another. "We can do this one of two more ways. You can let me cut your tongue und cut my breast so you may feel the cut of endless knives slashing down your throat und through your legs und in your feet und in your heart after your true love picks another tart... OR you can trade your VOICE for a smooth und comfortable loss of speech, followed by a smooth und comfortable transformation into a smooth und comfortable life of slavery forever after he chooses someone else!"

All of these outcomes seemed disturbingly specific, and Seras vaguely wondered why the Sea Witch was so convinced her love would fall for another.

However, Zorin was a fast talker and kept throwing new details faster than Seras could keep up.

"I'm a very busy woman and I haven't got all day," she said with casual indifference, and then a mural of the handsome count emerged from the cauldron before Seras. He smiled roguishly at her, and Seras melted before his insolent grin. "It won't cost much... JUST YOUR VOICE!" the Count bellowed, then Zorin's face burst through him.

Seras gasped and flinched back.

"It's a very simple deal und you don't haf much to choose. You want your voice or tongue? It doesn't matter much, one way or another I shall get your speech und you shall haf your legs! You poor unfortunate soul. You want knives? Or mute?"

The Sea Witch then came upon Seras from behind. "If you want to learn to walk, my sweet, you've got to make a stand! Take a gulp and take a breath, und go ahead and pick a hand! (Flotsam, Jetsam, now I've got her, boys!) THE BOSS IS ON A ROLL!" Zorin bellowed triumphantly, diving into the air and unraveling her tentacles theatrically.

Seras looked up at her with horror, and looked for a moment like she would call it off.

Then, Zorin made the smartest move of her life: she wounded Seras' pride.

Gesturing to her with both hands, she bellowed sarcastically: "THIS POOR! UN! FORTUNATE SOUUUUL~!"

Seras glared defiantly, and flexed her hand. The whole reason she was doing this was to create a new life for herself, and the new life she wanted involved freedom and sunlight over the oppression and darkness of the Sea King's realm. In the split second it took her to choose a hand, Seras thought of how the legs she desired were required for 'running, jumping, dancing,' and how she could never enjoy those things if she always felt like she were treading on knives.

Seras closed her and looked away as she shot her right hand forward and grabbed Zorin's tattooed hand with the purple eye in the palm.

The Sea Witch then squeezed so hard Seras felt sure her hand would break, and she felt as though her life force drained for a moment. When she looked back, Seras saw that the tattoos on Zorin's right arm had glowed and traveled up her arm, around her body, then returned back to the place they belonged. Then Zorin let go and flexed her hand above her head, grinning wickedly.

She then turned to her potion, evoking its magic with chanting.

"_BELUGA SEVRUGA_  
_COME WINDS OF THE CASPIAN SEA!"_

She bellowed so loudly the whole skeleton home and the polyp forest shook. The cauldron bubbled and boiled, and from the dread draught the Sea Witch evoked a terrible whirlpool that rivaled those outside her realm.

"_LARENGIX GLAUCITIS  
ET MAX LARYNGITIS  
LA VOCE TO ME!"_

While she chanted, she raised her tattooed hand high above her head, and then plunged her open palm deep within the boiling cauldron, eye first. After a few moments, it seemed the letters and symbols of the tattoos flowed out of her arm and into the concoction. It boiled and bubbled wildly, then suddenly the thick purple liquid of the potion saturated in the letters of the tattoos sprang out of the cauldron, shaped like two giant arms ending in hands with claws.

The Sea Witch looked truly possessed, and her eyes glowed red.

"NOW, SING!" she ordered, in a voice that was truly demonic.

Compelled by a force greater than her own, Seras felt herself begin to sing a wordless song.

**"KEEP SINGING!"** Zorin bellowed, and the giant clawed hands reached for Seras.

She almost lost her nerve, but carried out the tune without so much as a waiver.

Seras felt the liquid tattoo hands with claws cover her entire body and travel down her throat, where her voice felt thick as a lump and got plucked out of her throat like a fruit. She then saw and heard the glowing, singing little voice in front of her face, clutched between the magical claws of the Sea Witch, and her hands clutched her empty throat in horror.

Her glowing voice continued to sing as the magical hands carried it back to the Sea Witch, who held open a conch shell. The glowing tattoo hands then sank into the shell and took the glowing voice with it. As soon as the voice was locked tight, any pretense of sanity dropped.

The Sea Witch began to laugh maniacally, and the clawed potion tattoo hands that had plucked out the little mermaid's voice suddenly shot forward and engulfed her entire body. Seras felt herself getting saturated in the hot, thick, syrupy liquid, as it forced its way down her throat and through her veins. She felt as though her entire insides were thick with ooze, and she nearly passed out from blinding agony. Just as the Sea Witch promised, she could feel her long fish tail split down the middle and shrink into two human legs. Then, she felt shooting pain down the middle of each leg as bones formed within them. Like a flash of lightning that starts out as a skeletal bolt and then lights up the sky, Seras felt the blinding pain of her splitting legs and skeletal shoots before it expanded to the muscles, flesh, and skin. The pain was so intense, she blacked out.

After what felt like a few seconds, Seras slowly came to and vaguely wondered why her head hurt and why she felt such pressure in her chest.

Then, she realized to her panic and dismay that Zorin had turned her into human right on the sea floor! She couldn't breathe! Couldn't move! Her gills and fins were gone! She struggled to take in water without hurting her lungs and then convulsed. She then struggled to rise to the surface, but did not know how to use her new limbs and floundered on the sea floor.

"Whoa Schatzi! I got'cha!" Schrodinger cried cheerfully, and grabbed Seras under the shoulders and pushed her up toward the surface.

Zorin Blitz continued to laugh maniacally as Schrödinger helped Seras rise above her house of bones, her forest of doomed merpeople, her burning peat mire, her barren wasteland, and her dark perilous depths as they rose up to the surface above.

After years of resenting Schrödinger for being a faster swimmer than her, Seras suddenly felt a profound pang of gratitude as he rushed her up to the surface in record time. She felt as though the rapid change in water pressure would make her pop, but she was so desperate for air she hardly cared.

At the last possible second, Seras broke through the surface and took a deep gasp for air.

She then slumped back into the water, and felt Schrödinger hold her head above water as she had done for the count.

"Well, that wasn't so bad, eh, Seras?" Schrödinger smirked from below her.

Seras made a wry face, but was too exhausted to argue. Relief from the earlier agony, coupled with exhaustion from what happened finally seeped in, and Seras allowed herself to relax as Schrödinger swam her to shore.


End file.
